Sans Souls
by Riverthunder
Summary: Sans finds the twins Chara and Frisk in the snow. The skeleton decides to adopt the human children rather than give them to King Asgore, despite the Underground only needing one more SOUL. Sans will do anything to protect his baby bones... but someone he cares about has hurt them worse than he could ever imagine. T for abuse, human experimentation, and swearing in the future.
1. Chapter 1

**(A.N.: I know there are other stories out there where Sans adopts Frisk. I hope this one will be different enough, even with the addition of Chara, that you can see it as its own story. This story was inspired by other stories, but I've tried to avoid too many comparisons to my inspirations. Thanks for your attention, and please read and review if you would like to see more, because I'd love to write more!)**

The air was freezing. Chara bit their lip and hissed as the cold breeze continue to blast their back. They glanced up, and saw Frisk a few feet ahead, curled back up on the ground in an attempt to keep warm.

"Frisk!" Chara ran over and, after grabbing their sibling by the arm, tried to unceremoniously drag them to their feet, though the attempt was a fruitless one. "Frisk, you can't lie down!" Chara protested.

Frisk shook their head silently, burying their face in their sweater sleeves. The meaning was clear: _Tired. Wanna sleep._

Chara's blood suddenly felt colder than the snow they were wading through. "No!" They seized Frisk's arm with renewed strength. "No! Frisk, you can't sleep, you can't, it's dangerous, you can't-"

Chara heard what sounded like a large stick being snapped and froze. "Frisk! Frisk, we have to hide! Another monster is coming! Frisk, get up, move!"

This managed to get Frisk to their feet. After wobbling in place for a moment as they regained their balance, the child allowed their twin to drag them away to cover by the arm.

"This is terrible," Chara muttered nervously. "First _he_ caught us and then that goat monster almost ate us and now we're either going to be eaten anyway or freeze to death!"

Frisk said nothing, simply hugging their body with their sweater-clad arms before curling up on the snow again.

Chara wanted to protest such an action, but resisted the urge; the monster would surely hear Chara's desperate pleas.

~(*)~

Sans tightened his grip on his jacket's collar, trying to keep the chill out with the thick faux fur that lined it. He gazed around the snowy forest when-

"No, Frisk, you can't sleep, you can't-"

Sans tried to think if he had heard that voice before, or the name it said. Neither were ringing any bells.

Sans walked towards the voices, not noticing the branch beneath his feet. It cracked, sending a loud, ringing sound through the trees. The voice he heard suddenly became more panicked, trying to get this "Frisk" to their feet to flee.

Sans quickly followed the voices. Whoever they were, they seemed young. Sans didn't want any kids out here to get hurt. He may come off as a _lazybones_ , but he wasn't _heartless_.

Then he saw them.

They were a small human child; no older than six. They had short, light brown hair, and piercing, terrifying blood-red eyes. But despite the shocking color, the eyes were filled with fear and dread, rather than malice.

The comic walked over, and the child drew back, unwilling to turn their back on the monster but clearly wanting to escape from him. In their haste, they tripped, and Sans noticed they had tripped over another child, one who was lying in the snow and apparently trying to sleep.

 _Dangerous,_ he heard a voice remind him. _Not safe._

"What are you kids doing out here all alone?" Sans asked, holding out one bony hand to the child with the red eyes. They stared at him, too nervous to speak.

"What's wrong? Ice Cap got your tongue?" Sans laughed, but the child looked even more scared and confused.

 _Must not have seen him,_ Sans thought. _That or I'm losing my edge._

The skeleton sighed, then crouched down. "Listen, kid, it's not safe out here," he said, trying to keep his voice gentle and reassuring. "Undyne or one of her guard that isn't a lazy bag of bones will find you two."

He glanced around, once again catching sight of the second child when he returned his gaze to the first.

"You two are probably freezing out here. Let's get you somewhere warmer and safer."

He removed his jacket and carefully laid it down over the second child, wrapping them up before holding his hand out towards the second. He noticed that the child in his arms had a bandage around their throat while the second had one around each hand. Sans scowled to himself, but held out his hand anyway, offering to let the child take it. "Come on. I know a shortcut. As soon as we get home, I'll get you two some food and a nice place to rest."

The child looked unsure of such a kind offer coming from such a frightening monster, but they seemed to decide they didn't have a choice. They didn't, really. So they took the bony hand and followed Sans once he had stood, carrying their companion in his other arm as he led them away.

~(*)~

Chara sat on the treadmill, having to remind themself to chew their food properly before swallowing. They felt ravenous; they hadn't eaten properly in ages. Neither had Frisk, but they were curled up on the mattress, a blanket tucked tightly around their body while they half hugged the single pillow on the bed. Their burger was still in the tightly closed bag on the dresser.

The skeleton, "Sans", sat with his back against the wall, arms on his knees, watching Chara eat. He had an expression on his face that Chara could neither pinpoint nor find comfort in.

They wondered vaguely what they had done wrong, but at the moment they were too hungry to care.

Eventually the burger was gone. Chara's stomach wasn't satisfied, but they knew better than to ask for more. The skeleton noticed.

"Alright, kid, let's make a deal," said Sans, his tone kind and encouraging. "You answer my questions, okay? And then I'll go back to Grillby's and get you some more grub. Sound fair?"

Chara weighed their options before nodding.

"Okay. First things first, what's your name, kid?"

"I'm Chara." Chara pointed to their chest as they spoke, then pointed to the bed where their sibling was sleeping. "That's Frisk. We're twins."

"Alright, three answers for the price of one," Sans grinned. "Next question. What are you two doing in the Underground? Why aren't you at home?"

Chara had been looking around the room, taking note of a fluffy dog in the corner they wanted to pet when Sans asked the question. They looked up, horrified. Their SOUL appeared, and was pounding in terror.

"Hey, hey, calm down," Sans said quickly, holding his hands up in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. "You don't have to answer, kid. I bet I can guess. Now, tell me about Frisk. When was the last time you two changed the bandages on their neck and your hands?"

Chara shrugged, not wanting to verbally say "I don't know". People didn't like that answer.

Sans frowned. "We'll have to change them, then. It's not safe for you kids to wear the same bandages while you heal. But we can work on that when Frisk wakes up."

Sans sighed, then looked back at the human. "Okay. Chara, you've be honest with me, so I'm going to be honest with you."

Chara nodded, feeling a little relieved at the skeleton's words.

"The Underground isn't safe for humans." Sans paused. "If monsters were able to obtain seven human souls, they would be able to break the barrier and return to the surface." Sans looked at Chara, his eyes serious. "Most monsters would take you to King Asgore in a heartbeat."

Chara's blood colored eyes widened. They shot a look to Frisk, wondering if they could seize them fast enough to escape the skeleton. .

This was a mistake!

"Calm down, kiddo. I don't wanna hurt you. You two are just kids and I can tell you've been through a lot. I'm not giving you to Asgore and I'm not going to tell anyone who would about you, either. You kiddos are going to be fine as long as you follow a few rules, okay?"

"Yes."

"We can talk about those when Frisk is awake, though, okay? Right now all you need to know is it's best if you stay quiet. I don't want my brother to find you two before I have a chance to talk to him."

"Okay."

"You're not very chatty with me, huh, kid?" Sans grinned. "That's okay. Well, I better go get you another burger and some fries from Grillby. We _did_ have a bargain."

Chara watched as Sans stood and stretched, then shakily stood as well.

"Need something else?"

Chara looked around the room before motioning Sans to lean down. The skeleton complied.

"What's up, kiddo?"

"Please don't make Frisk talk." Chara's voice was fearful, like they were afraid Sans would be angry.

Sans glanced over at the child still sleeping on his bed. "Can they still communicate without talking?" He asked gently. "Can they still tell me what they need?"

"They can write. And they use sign language." Chara looked away nervously, turning to watch Frisk instead of Sans.

"Shouldn't be a problem, then," Sans said, straightening up. "At least not after I do some more sign practice. I haven't done it in so long I'm afraid I'm a bit rusty."

His thoughts strayed.

 _The man who speaks in hands..._

Hmm. That was an idea….

"I'll be back in a bit, kid. Remember, just keep quiet if Papyrus comes home. Don't worry, you'll know it's him."

With that, Sans exited the room, locking the door behind him.

~(*)~

"Sans! Where have you been? You weren't at your post and you failed to recalibrate your puzzles!"

Chara had been laying on the bed next to Frisk, but now they sat up, their SOUL pounding with fear.

That must be the skeleton's mysterious brother. The one who might take them to King Asgore.

They listened as the voice went from room to room calling for Sans before-

 ** _Knock knock!_**

"Sans! Come out here!"

Papyrus began to jiggle the door handle and Chara felt like they were going to cry when-

"Yo, Papyrus, what are you doing yelling at a door? That's not how knock knock jokes work, ya know?"

"Sans! There you are! Where have you been, you insufferable lazy bones?!"

"Grabbin' some grub. What can I say? I was hungry."

"Sans, you have failed once again to recalibrate your puzzles! What if a human-"

"Paps, you mind if we talk about this after I eat? My food's gonna get cold."

"Oh…. fine. Come out when you're done!"

"Gotcha, future Royal Guard."

Sans unlocked the door and closed it. "Well, that went better than I expected. Good job- kid?"

Chara had burst into silent tears when Sans entered the room. Sans frowned and put the new bag of food for Chara next to the bag with Frisk's food. Then he walked over and gently picked Chara up in his arms and hugged the human close. "Shh, shh, kiddo. You're gonna be okay. You did a really good job. I'm proud of ya, kid."

Chara finally sniffled and wiped their eyes with their sweater sleeve. Sans sighed, giving the child a final squeeze before setting them back down on the bed. "Hey, ya know what? Papa Sans kept his promise! C'mere ya little rascal, come get some more grub," he encouraged, opening the bag and pulling out another burger and some fries.

Chara's mouth watered.

~(*)~

Chara finished their dinner just as quickly as before, but now they yawned and blinked up at Sans, their blood-red eyes bleary. They held out their arms, and Sans smiled, lifting them up again.

"Time for bed, ya little baby bones."

Chara said nothing, just sighed and gripped Sans's jacket in their fist. Luckily Sans was able to find a second pillow and blanket in the closet, so he arranged them neatly beside the still slumbering Frisk and gently laid Chara down. The child held tight to the jacket, even after being tucked in with their new warm blanket and the closest a skeleton could provide to a goodnight kiss (a gentle bump on the cheek), so Sans gently slipped out of the jacket and let Chara cling to it. If it comforted the kid somehow, who was he to judge?

After quickly looking around the room Sans headed for the door and closed it behind him, locking it once again.

The TV was on. Sans could hear Mettaton's voice but couldn't make out what the robot was saying.

"You wanted to talk to me, Paps?"

"Yes!" Sans heard fumbling as he headed for the staircase and a small _click_. Mettaton's voice was cut off mid-sentence. "We need to have a talk about your work ethic, you lazybones!"

"Aw, bro, I know I work hard at not workin' but ya don't need to compliment me like that."

"It wasn't a compliment!" Papyrus ranted. Sans grinned and sighed, sinking onto the couch. Once his brother was calmed down the younger skeleton planned to reveal the human children sleeping upstairs on his bed. It was only a matter of-

~(*)~

 _Chara struggled against the leather straps that kept them bound tightly to the steel operating table. Their cries went unnoticed by the figure in the room they could make out. All they could see was Frisk, similarly bound, though their table was vertical rather than horizontal like Chara's._

 _Frisk was frantically fingerspelling to Chara-_

E

 _Chara cried out again, louder, tears of fear and pain running into their light brown hair._

 _"HELP US! PLEASE! SOMEBODY! ANYBODY!"_

 _Chara gasped in pain as something cold and merciless seized their SOUL._

 _HE glared down at the child, disapproval clear in his heartless eyes._

I'm afraid I shall have to teach you a lesson….

 _A firm squeeze of the SOUL and Chara screeched in agony. Surely their SOUL would be unable to stand this torture surely it was going to break into pieces in his grip surely they were going to die-_

….you shall never leave here. Your attempts to be rescued are futile. And….

 _-a harder squeeze oh no no no not like this not without Frisk they couldn't leave Frisk alone with a monster like this they simply couldn't they would never forgive themself-_

….any future attempts will result in your SOUL being destroyed. Do I make myself clear?

 _-the grip was softened and Chara gasped for air and fell silent immediately. How could they not when the punishment was leaving Frisk to fight this demon off alone? Best to suffer through… suffer through as silently as they were able….._

~(*)~

 _-TIME!_

A horrific scream ripped through the air. Sans looked up to his room, blue magic lighting in his right eye and hand.

"KID!" Sans threw himself off the couch and towards the door to his bedroom. He fumbled with the lock and then burst in. Chara was awake, pressed in the furthest corner from the door, a groggy Frisk in their arms. They were sobbing, hugging Frisk close.

"Help help help help help," Chara chanted through the tears, their red eyes screwed shut.

"What happened? Did someone attack you?" Sans looked around for any sign that his room had somehow been broken into but found none. Finally he calmed himself enough that the magic disappeared. "Oh, baby bones, you scared me. Did ya have a nightmare, kiddo?"

Chara was shaking too badly to answer.

Frisk yawned and then began to sign, but Sans could only make out about half of it.

"Sorry, kid, my sign's a bit rusty. Can you fingerspell it out for me instead?"

Frisk nodded in understanding before beginning to sign. Sans watched and if he had blood it would have run cold when Frisk's explanation was done: _It was a memory._

 _What kind of memory makes a kid flip out like that?_ Sans wanted to demand, but he kept silent. Instead he watched as Frisk untangled themself from Chara and he picked the red-eyed child up to cradle them to his chest.

"Hey, baby bones, hey, don't worry. You're gonna be okay, kiddo, you're safe. Nothin's gonna hurt you while I'm around."

Chara let out a broken wail and clung to Sans, sobbing uncontrollably with the image of the memory still seared into their brain. Their heartbroken crying refused to cease, so Sans just held them close, rocking them gently while Chara cried and cried and cried.

"Sans? Who are these two? I've never seen them before. What kind of monsters are they?"

Sans froze. He forgot he had to tell Papyrus about the kids with the excitement of Chara's scream. Sighing, Sans turned, still holding Chara protectively in his arms. Frisk looked nervously at Papyrus so Sans removed the hand he'd been using to rub Chara's back in an attempt at comfort and instead used it to gently pull the almost silent human to his side, where they clung to his basketball shorts, unwilling to look at Papyrus for long.

"They're not monsters, Pap. They're humans."

"Humans? You found humans? Sans, this is great! Asgore will be so proud of us! I mean, you, you did capture the humans. But I can help you bring them to him! Then he'll be proud of us both! But mostly you, of course!"

"I'm not taking them to Asgore."

"What? But Sans-"

"I'm. Not. Taking. Them. To. Him." Sans's eyes had suddenly become black voids. "Asgore isn't getting my baby bones."

"Your… what? Sans, King Asgore wants the humans for-"

"I don't care." Sans resisted the urge to shout with difficulty; he didn't want to frighten Chara and Frisk and he hated the thought of shouting at Papyrus but the younger skeleton seemed to be refusing to understand. "They're just kids, Pap. It wouldn't be right to give them to Asgore. They haven't done anything wrong." He paused, glancing at the pair. "Unless you count sleeping through a good meal or eating too fast." He said the words jokingly, and Frisk giggled at him, though Chara was still whimpering, struggling to calm down. Sans shifted them and rested his cheekbone on their head. "Hey, baby bones, it's all gonna be okay. Don't cry. Papa Sans isn't gonna let the tall, loud skeleton take you to mean old King Asgore."

Papyrus looked mildly affronted at being called "loud", but he held his nonexistent tongue. Finally he sighed. "If you're not going to take them to Asgore, what are you going to do with them?"

"I'm going to keep them. And I'm going to hide them. I'm not taking any chances." Sans paused. Chara finally seemed to be calming down. At least, that's what their hiccups made it sound like. "Come on, baby bones," Sans said, gently setting Chara on their feet and taking one of their hands and one of Frisk's. "Let's get you two some milk and cookies. Should help you get back to sleep."

Papyrus stepped aside as Sans lead the two out of his room, then followed the trio down to the kitchen.

~(*)~

"So how did you find humans?"

"They were out in the snow. Frisk was trying to get some sleep. They would have frozen to death if I hadn't found them."

Papyrus glanced into the kitchen. Frisk was giggling as they dunked the large chocolate chip cookies into the glass of milk Sans had given them with two hands. Chara was picking at their own cookies, unable to find any joy in the baked treat.

Papyrus sighed. "Do you have a plan? If you're going to hide humans, do you know where you'll hide them?"

"Gaster's old lab."

Sans said the three words confidently. Neither he nor Papyrus noticed the reactions of the children. Chara's head snapped up to stare at Sans's back, their pale face draining of the little color they had left. Frisk squeezed their cookie so hard it crumbled within their hands and dunked into the glass of milk before them.

"Well, I suppose he doesn't use it anymore…."

"He hasn't been in that old lab for years. He won't be going down there any time soon, and the kiddos will be safe there. They'll have plenty of room to run around and play and I think some of our old toys are still in there. Plus I can work more on my experiments."

Chara repressed a squeak of horror with difficulty. Sans didn't hear, and continued after a sigh. "Though there are only so many experiments I can do with rocks before they get too boring. Maybe I'll make more stuff like fried snow. That would be interesting, right?"

"Sans, you only made one batch of fried snow."

"I'm proud of that fried snow, Pap. That's my legacy right there."

"Well…."

"I'm gonna have to disappear, Pap. At least for the most part. I guess I'll just be as honest as I can be and say I'm getting back into science, seeing as I've got that Ph.D. I never use, and all. You can stay with us if you want, but if you do, you won't be able to spend as much time with Undyne, and you wouldn't get a chance to be in the Royal Guard."

"That's…. that's my dream," Papyrus said, a bit dejected.

"Then you don't have to stay with us," Sans shrugged. "You can just come visit us. But promise me you won't tell anyone about Chara and Frisk. Promise me you won't tell anyone about my baby bones. I'll never be able to stand it if someone takes them from me."

Papyrus was silent for a few minutes, but finally he sighed.

"I promise."


	2. Chapter 2

Sans glanced around the kitchen, clutching a backpack in one bony hand. He'd been packing for himself and the kiddos ever since he put them back to bed after they finished their milk and cookies. He'd noticed Frisk now seemed shaken like Chara, but he'd brushed it off, assuming that their nervousness was from the discussion of Papyrus possibly joining them. Frisk didn't seem to be that fond of Papyrus, probably because his brother was so loud and energetic in comparison to Sans and, seemingly, Chara.

Now he was packing food for the kids. He'd already stopped at the store to get a few things he'd need, mostly to hold them over for a few days, and now he was making last minute additions to their food supply. He picked up some of the cookies and placed them in a bag before adding them to his backpack. The kids surely wouldn't mind if he spoiled them a bit.

Finally he thought he had enough food, so he zipped up the backpack and carried it up to his room. Papyrus was watching Mettaton's show again. Sans tried not to shudder as the robot called out, _"Welcome, beauties and gentle beauties!"_

He knew that robot would be dangerous if the kids were ever found by him. The thought terrified him.

Sans reached his room and set his backpack on top of the suitcase he was taking with them. Then he glanced over at the humans. Frisk was fast asleep again, their little chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm as they breathed. Chara, however, was not asleep. Their crimson eyes watched Sans, who shut the door behind him and stretched.

"Still trying to get over that nightmare, huh, baby bones?" Sans asked, trying to keep his voice light and friendly despite the anger he felt that someone had hurt Chara so bad they had memories that sent them into terrified crying fits.

Chara slowly nodded, and Sans nodded as well, hoping he was conveying a meaning like _I understand_ or _It's okay_. "Wanna tell Papa Sans about it?"

Chara shook their head, suddenly panicked, their red eyes widening fearfully.

"That's okay." Sans walked over and sat on the bed next to Chara, tousling their light brown hair as he spoke. "Maybe later, when you trust me more."

Chara kept silent, but leaned against Sans's hand, enjoying the feeling of his gentle touch. This was….nice. Chara was glad that they had found a kind monster for once. They never wanted to see _Him_ again.

Sans wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but somehow he'd ended up laying in bed in between Chara and Frisk. Chara was finally sleeping, seeming to feel safer when they were being held by Sans and resting their head on his shoulder. He had his other arm around Frisk, though the latter was still sleeping on their pillow.

Sans stared up at the ceiling. _This is different._

He frowned as he thought about it; usually today the timeline would have reset. Usually he'd have woken up and would be bitterly watching as Papyrus beamed while Mettaton broke into some musical number Sans had long ago grown sick of.

But today, that didn't happen. And instead, he found two human children.

Sans glanced down at them. Frisk made a cooing noise in their sleep. Sans had to take a moment to check that his SOUL wasn't melting. It was a cute enough sound that Sans wouldn't be surprised if it happened. Once he had confirmed his SOUL was fine, Sans was back to his original train of thought.

Somehow these kids were related to the timeline. Sans was sure of it. He didn't know how; if he knew how, he suspected he'd know a lot more about them than he did. He ignored that thought, though. They were still figuring out how to trust him. That wasn't their fault. Someone had hurt them, he was sure of it.

He caught sight of Chara's bandaged hand then and silently cursed himself for forgetting the kids needed to have their bandages changed. Sans sighed. Tomorrow, before they left, he'd change the bandages and then they'd head off to the old abandoned lab.

Slowly Sans drifted off, sleep overtaking him easily for once.

Sans awoke to two soft little hands patting his cheekbones.

He heard a soft whimpering voice to his side, and was sure that the voice was Chara, nervous for Sans's reaction. The skeleton just grinned as he slowly opened his eye sockets and caught sight of the face before him, though.

"Having fun, baby bones?"

"Pap pap pap," Frisk murmured in a soft voice, punctuating each word with a gentle pat of Sans's cheekbones.

"I'll take that as a yes, ya little monster," Sans teased, tapping Frisk's nose with one bony finger. Frisk giggled and Sans laughed. He was going to love having these kids around; he already knew it.

"Alright, you two," Sans said, sitting up. "Let's get those bandages changed, and then I'll take you downstairs to get some breakfast. Then we'll get goin'. Sound good?"

Frisk giggled with delight at the prospect of an adventure. Chara merely nodded.

"C'mon then, ya little brats."

Sans led the two to the bathroom, where he gently began unwrapping the bandages from Chara's hands. Sans froze. His eye sockets became black voids as he stared.

Chara's hands were burned, and though their wrists and forearms- at least, what he could see of their forearms- were burned less severely, they had long gashes in them as well. Chara looked away, just as Sans felt Frisk's hand on his cheekbone again. The skeleton looked up and glanced over to the human child. They began to fingerspell.

 _Did we do something wrong?_

"No, baby bones," Sans told them, gently placing a hand on their head. "Never." He looked back at the wounds on Chara's arms. "Are these the only ones?"

Frisk shook their head, and Chara reluctantly lifted their sweater up. Their little body was covered in more burns and gashes. Most of them were healing; others were either bandaged or should be bandaged. Sans thought that if he had a stomach, he would have vomited at the sight- especially the sight of some of the gashes opening up and oozing blood.

Forcing a gentle smile on his face, the skeleton grabbed a washcloth and soaked it in water before he began gently dabbing at the opening wounds. "That feel a little better, baby bones?"

Chara sighed, a sound of relief, and nodded. It was an almost blissful nod, as if they hadn't noticed they were in pain until they weren't anymore.

Sans smiled. "Good."

He removed the last of Chara's bandages and cleaned the rest of the wounds that needed it before redressing them. Chara made a happy noise, almost like a purr, and Sans laughed. "I'm glad you feel better, kiddo."

The skeleton turned to Frisk. Before he could ask, Frisk had lifted their own sweater as Chara put theirs back on so Sans could tend to their wounds. Sans was glad to see that Frisk didn't seem to be nearly as injured as Chara, but wondered if that was because Chara had made sure to take more of the abuse to save Frisk the pain.

Almost all of Frisk's wounds were healing, so very few needed to be cleaned with the washcloth. Sans tousled their hair when he'd finished cleaning and rebandaging their injuries, earning him a delighted giggle.

"Breakfast time, ya little monsters," Sans said, helping Frisk pull their sweater back down. "Who wants…. spaghetti?"

Frisk and Chara gave him confused looks laced with distaste.

"Okay, how about…. cinnamon buns?"

Frisk gasped in delight, bouncing a bit on their heels while Chara licked their lips.

"Alright then, come on, ya rascals." Sans gently placed his bony hands to their backs and lead Chara and Frisk out of the bathroom and to the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen he found two cinnamon buns, put them on plates, and popped them in the microwave for a few seconds to warm them up. Then he set the plates in front of Frisk and Chara, who began pulling their breakfasts apart and sticking warm, cinnamony pieces into their mouths. Sans made a third cinnamon bun for himself and sat in between them, chewing thoughtfully as Chara stuffed a strip of bun in their mouth and grinned at Frisk, who giggled in delight at Chara's cinnamon smile and tore a piece off of their bun to do the same.

Sans finished his breakfast first, mostly because the kids were still playing with their food, but he didn't say anything- who cared if they were having fun?

He washed his hands in the sink, then went upstairs to get the suitcase and backpack.

He came back down to Frisk finishing up while Chara had moved a chair to the sink so they could reach the faucet to wash their hands.

The red-eyed child looked up, then glanced around once they caught sight of the bags in Sans's room.

"What about Snowy?"

"Snowy?" Sans stared at Chara in confusion. Did the kid have a stuffed rabbit or something he didn't see and had forgotten to get for them?

"The puppy. I call him Snowy 'cause I don't know his real name."

" _Oh_ , the dog," Sans said, nodding. "I guess he can come too. Papyrus isn't a huge fan of his, to be honest. And if you kids like dogs-"

"Yes!" Chara said quickly, while Frisk nodded and, momentarily forgetting Sans did best with their fingerspelling at the moment, nodded their fist quickly, the sign that Sans recognized as "yes".

"Okay, fair enough," Sans said, going over to get a warm washcloth to wash the sticky cinnamon off of Frisk's cheeks. "Want to go get him, Chara?"

"Okay." Chara climbed down from the chair cautiously, then headed for the living room before pausing. "What's his real name?"

Sans laughed. "I guess it's Snowy now. Papyrus and I always just called him 'the dog' or 'the puppy'."

Frisk quickly signed to Chara, who nodded. "Frisk wants his full name to be Snowflake. Snowy for short."

"Nice name, kid," Sans praised, ruffling their hair. Another giggle.

 _Apparently I'm doing pretty good at this parent thing_ , he thought to himself.

Chara had disappeared from the doorway, but returned soon enough, holding the fluffy and newly named Snowflake in their arms. The dog looked drowsy, like he had been woken up from a nap, and, as if to accentuate this point, he yawned widely, showing off his pink tongue and set of sharp, white teeth.

Sans smirked at the dog, patting his head before gently taking him from Chara and laying him beside the suitcase. "I can't wash all that cinnamon stuff off your face with that fluffy mutt in the way," he teased, giving their nose a gentle poke. Chara grinned sheepishly at him, and as soon as he was done, had Snowflake lifted safely into their arms once again. Someone was certainly attached.

"Okay." Sans looked around, trying to think. Did he forget anything? He didn't think so. "I think that's everything. You kids ready to get going?"

Chara nodded, shifting Snowflake into one arm and holding out their hand for Sans to take.

"Oops. One sec, kid, let me put my backpack on and get Frisk situated."

The skeleton quickly put his backpack on his shoulders and then picked up Frisk. "How about a piggyback ride, ya little monster?"

Frisk giggled eagerly, reaching for his neck, and Sans maneuvered them onto his back. "Hang on tight." Frisk responded by hugging his neck tightly.

Sans finally took Chara's hand and, with the other, took the suitcase's handle. "Let's go, then," he said, walking towards the wall.

There had been a flash of blue magic and suddenly they were in an old, dusty, almost decrepit laboratory. Sans had set Frisk down and shouldered off the backpack, muttering, "geez, worse than I thought it'd be", before ushering the kids to a room off the main lab.

It was a bedroom, though clearly one for children. Toys of all sorts- stuffed animals, figurines, toy cars, building blocks, puzzles- were stacked in large, messy piles. Sans grinned sheepishly at them. "Guess I forgot Dad never made us clean these up. Ah well, not a big deal." His left eye gleamed with blue magic, and his hand did as well. He flicked it, and suddenly toys were cleaning themselves up.

"That's better," he nodded to himself when they were done, now semi-neatly replaced in toyboxes or on shelves. "Anyway, this can be your room. You guys should have plenty of space. And Snowflake can stay here too," he added, before Chara could ask. Both kids grinned at him.

"I'm gonna go unpack the food and stuff. You kids be good and make sure Snowflake doesn't chew up anything he shouldn't."

Then Sans disappeared.

Chara had waited for Frisk to chose their bed- the one on the right side of the room- before placing Snowflake on the other one. The dog promptly flopped onto his side, snoring loudly.

Chara heard Frisk giggle. They turned and surveyed the room. There really were a lot of toys in here for them to play with. Frisk had already found one that Chara was sure they'd be extremely attached to: a large, stuffed black bear with a bow around its neck and a smile on its brown muzzle.

Frisk was currently sitting on their bed, holding their bear close and rocking with it. Chara found a few animal figures- lions, bears, zebras, cheetahs, leopards- a whole zooful- in a toybox. It seemed this particular toybox was for animal figures alone. Chara selected a few of them and began to arranged them on the carpeted floor, making sure to select baby animals as well to set around the paws or hooves of the adults that Chara decided would be their parents.

After selecting a pretty figure of a white lion, with a beautiful long mane, Chara arranged a podium above the other animals with some building blocks, and began to compose their epic of Winter, the White Lion King.

Sans was not sure what he'd expected he'd come back to find, but somehow, it certainly wasn't this.

Frisk was snuggled up with one of his old teddy bears, one he'd been particularly fond of when he was younger. He thought they might be whispering to the bear, but he couldn't be sure. He didn't mind either way.

Chara was on the floor, having built a few structures out of blocks, and then arranging animal figures within those structures. Currently their little hands were arranging some cheetah cubs around the paws of three adults. Sans wondered vaguely what sort of soap opera Chara was coming up with. Somehow he thought it had to do with one cheetah having cubs with two other cheetahs who were just now learning about each other.

Chara looked up. "Papa!"

Sans blinked. Sure, he'd been calling himself Papa Sans, but he'd expected he'd have to wait quite a long time before either child actually referred to him as such.

"What's up, baby bones?"

"Papa, look! I found lots of pretty toys!"

Chara began pointing out the ones they found particularly beautiful; including macaws, fish, and a white fox with gray markings. Sans smiled and listened to their explanations for each with rapt attention.

When Chara was done, he ruffled their hair again. "I'm glad you're having fun with those old things, kiddo. Nice to see they're getting some use."

He surveyed the small metropolis Chara had built with the blocks. "So what's up with this?"

"Winter is a very good king. He brought infrastructure to the animal kingdom." Chara looked at him solemnly, as if any child would use the word "infrastructure" in everyday conversation.

"Ah. I see."

"The population is going to start stabilizing once the current babies grow up," Chara continued. "Eventually it will probably shrink."

Sans tried to act like this was completely normal play for a six year old child. "Ah. I see. How's Winter's popularity? People like him okay?"

"Yes." Chara nodded. "His rival is Coal, but he's not nearly as popular and he'll lose to Winter once the battle arrives. Winter will probably decapitate him."

Sans felt his eyes become blank, black voids again. _A kid talking about decapitation? Aw, this ain't good._

"I see." Sans fought to return his eyes to normal before Chara saw. Luckily it worked. "How about a snack, baby bones? You two must be gettin' hungry after all that playin' around."

"Okay," Chara said, standing. Frisk got off their own bed, though they kept the teddy bear in one arm.

"Whatcha got there, baby bones?"

Frisk fingerspelled, _Francis_.

"Good name," Sans told them approvingly, ruffling their hair. "Come on, I think I have some Starfaits in the kitchen."

Chara did not know what a "Starfait" was until Sans presented them to the children.

Frisk was clearly in awe; their grip on Francis the bear loosened slightly as they stared at the colorful treat in front of them.

Chara tentively stuck out their tongue and lapped at the topping, then glanced up and gave Sans a small, pleased smile.

"Is that acceptable to ya, ya little runt?" Sans teased.

"Yes, Papa," Chara giggled, before seizing the fancy glass filled past the brim with delicious Starfait and beginning to drink it down.

Frisk looked torn; they seemed curious about the taste of the delicious dessert Sans had presented them with but unwilling, for some reason, to actually eat it.

"What's wrong, baby bones? Starfait not quite your thing?"

Frisk shook their head, further increasing Sans's confusion.

"Wanna tell me what's up?"

Frisk turned to Chara and began signing to them. Chara laughed when they were done.

"They say it's too pretty to eat."

Sans laughed with Chara. "Don't worry, baby bones," he said, wrapping an arm around Frisk in a gentle, loving hug. "There's plenty more Starfait where this came from. You can eat it, I can get you more. 'Sides, if ya think it looks good, wait 'til ya taste it."

Frisk looked at the treat again, frowning. Then, they took the Starfait glass in their little hands and began to follow Chara's example, drinking it down like they were.

When the kids were done with their snacks, Sans had to laugh. They had bright, pastel colored Starfait yogurt all around their mouths and edible glitter and star sprinkles embedded in that yogurt. The colors of the yogurt were swirling together in a strange, pastel galaxy.

"Come on. Time to get your faces washed," Sans told them, lifting Frisk into one arm as the child reached out for him and letting Chara grab his other hand.

It had been about a week since Sans, Frisk, and Chara had moved to the old lab. The kids avoided most of the scientific equipment like the plague, but Sans didn't seem to notice or mind much, allowing them to mostly do as they pleased.

Chara was glad to finally have an attentive father. Sans not only fed them three square meals a day, but he supplemented them with regular snacks and treats. He also played with the children, even taking on the role of Coal in Chara's ongoing King Winter story, helping them come up with a plot line where Coal had a few evil tricks up his paws to try to overthrow the good king. Chara loved the story even more with Sans's help, and he even played with Frisk, having small tea parties or feasts with Francis and some of the other stuffed animals. Occasionally Snowy joined in on these playtimes, often being fed dog treats by Sans while Chara giggled and Frisk stroked the pup while he chewed on his prize.

Chara didn't think life could be any better than this. Surely this was the prime of life- to have a father who loved them, a sweet twin, a puppy- Chara couldn't think of anything else they would have dreamed of asking for.

It also thrilled them to see Sans treating Frisk with immense respect and pride; the skeleton had been brushing up on their sign language and now spoke to Frisk almost entirely in sign, which caused Frisk extreme happiness. Even if Chara _could_ sign, they usually chose another option, that being Speaking, since Frisk could hear and Chara didn't mind using their voice like Frisk did. Sans's efforts to connect more with Frisk were paying off, as Frisk now clung to Sans's arms constantly and followed him around, except when he went to the lab to tinker around with his experiments.

Sans seemed pleased with the company almost all of the time; the rest of the time, merely contented. Chara noticed Sans only seemed contented with Frisk's constant following when he was extremely tired and just couldn't seem to muster the energy to be grinning a wide, happy grin at Frisk every time he looked back at them.

In any case, it definitely felt like Sans enjoyed having them around; he'd only gotten after them once, when Chara tried to use a knife to cut on of Frisk's treats up for them.

 _"No, no, baby bones," Sans said quickly, carefully taking the knife away from Chara. "I don't want you using knives by yourself. Too dangerous for a little baby bones like you. Ask Papa Sans to help you and I will, okay?"_

Chara hadn't minded at all; they were glad to have an excuse to go to Papa more for help and he hadn't been angry like _He_ could be.

They glanced over at Sans, who was settled in front of a computer between two different lab tables.

They turned to leave, intending to go back to their room to play with Frisk. They wanted to try and build a castle out of all the blocks they could find in their room.

 _"WE MUST DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF DETERMINATION-"_

Sans turned at the sound of running footsteps just in time to throw himself out of the way.

The scalpel plunged into the computer screen with such force that the glass on the monitor shattered, rendering it useless.

"Chara!?"

The child swung their head around to look at him. Their face was twisted in a terrible grimace, but suddenly their snarling frown turned into a dark and terrible smirk. Sans felt his eye sockets widen as Chara lunged for him again, scalpel at the ready.

"Chara! Baby bones! What's wrong!?"

Chara suddenly howled with laughter before Sans grabbed them around the waist, managing to snatch the scalpel away before the child could plunge it into his back. They bit him in the shoulder instead, making him wince, though he didn't loosen his grip. "Chara, honey, and what's wrong?"

They screamed in defiance, but Sans merely hugged them close, panting as he tried to think of a way to calm Chara down.

Frisk was in the lab now, looking scared.

"Frisk, no, go back to your room, Papa will help Chara-"

Frisk ignored him, instead beginning to sign, the look on their face cautious. Sans turned Chara in his arms, careful not to let them loose, but wanting them to see what Frisk was saying. Anything to help Chara. Anything to calm them down and stop this.

 _You are safe here,_ they reminded Chara carefully, their expression pleading. _He isn't here. I'm fine. You're fine._

Chara struggled a bit in Sans's arms, but the skeleton held them close, not wanting to let them go in case they attacked their sibling.

 _Papa promised to keep us safe,_ Frisk continued, and Sans felt Chara's struggling growing weaker as the child reminded them of this.

 _There's no reason to be upset. He won't hurt me again._

Somehow, that seemed to do it. Chara slumped in Sans's arms, their fight gone. They seemed too weak to do anything anymore, as if the sudden rush of murderous rage had taken all their energy. Sans stood and carried the child to their room, laying them on their bed. They had passed out. Sans thought about what Frisk had said. _He isn't here. He won't hurt me again._

Sans wondered what that meant. But more than that, he wondered what set Chara off to begin with. He shook his head, feeling dazed.

He carefully shooed Frisk and Snowy out of the bedroom and went to get a cool washcloth to put over Chara's forehead and eyes.

 _Am I in over my head with these kids?_ He wondered to himself, wringing excess water from the washcloth. He looked up at the mirror, then slowly shook his head. _They need me. I can't think about things like that now. Not anymore. Besides, they're dead without me._

He walked back towards the bedroom, laying the cloth across Chara's face and gently petting their hair. Their breathing was shallow and labored. Sans tried not to let his feelings of fear overwhelm the rational part of his mind that said they weren't injured and should be fine in a few hours.

"Everything's going to be okay, baby bones," Sans sighed, hoping it was true. "You're going to be okay. Papa won't let anything happen to you."

And more than that, he was determined to find out what set Chara off like that to make sure it never happened again.


	3. Chapter 3

Sans had slept at Chara's bedside all night. He'd sent Frisk to sleep in his room with Francis and Snowy, unwilling to risk the child being hurt if Chara woke up and still wasn't themself.

He felt the bed shift and raised his head. Chara was groggily reaching up above their head. "F...F-Frisk…?"

Sans reached out to gently take Chara's searching hands in his bony fingers. "Shh, baby bones, shh," he murmured, gently tucking Chara into their blankets better. "Frisk is sleeping. They're alright. Everything is going to be fine."

"Pa...pa?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out," Sans teased affectionately as the child struggled to focus on his face. He patted Chara's hair, gently smoothing it down. "Feel a little better?" he added, pulling the washcloth gently away from Chara's eyes.

Chara blinked blearily. The moisture in their eyes added to the illusion that their irises were bloody. "What… happened?"

Sans thought about what to say. He didn't want to scare Chara. He was sure telling them the truth might be worse than a little white lie.

"You didn't feel very good after dinner, baby bones," he said soothingly. It wasn't untrue. It just wasn't the _whole_ truth. "I thought it would be best if you slept in here and Frisk slept in my room while you recovered."

Chara seemed to accept this. They made a few unintelligible mumblings before sighing. Sans used the washcloth, which was still cool, to gently pat Chara's cheeks and forehead. The child murmured happily as they felt the cool cloth brush against their skin, and Sans smiled, pleased that his little baby bones seemed to be doing better.

"...'M tired," Chara finally mumbled.

"I know, baby bones, I know," Sans murmured. "Go back to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up again. I'm just going to go and get your washcloth nice and cold again."

Sans stood up, and Chara drifted off again.

~(*)~

"Who are they?"

"Their SOUL is red."

"Which trait was red?"

"Don't ask me."

"You're the one with the notebook!"

"His handwriting is so bad he can't read it himself."

The various voices drifted around Chara, who tried to open their eyes or lift their hand. Their whole body felt overly weak, like they had been encased in concrete.

"Oh! They're waking up!"

"They're still asleep."

"Be quiet, idiot!"

At last, Chara felt strength return to their body. They opened their eyes and looked around them.

They felt like they were being watched by a rainbow. Then they noticed the rainbow lacked any red, and finally the shapes of the colors became more defined.

"They LIIIIIVE!" shouted the orange figure dramatically, collapsing to the ground as if in relief.

"Oh, shut up, Blitz," muttered the yellow figure.

"Please be kind, Rule," pleaded the green figure.

"Nice job, Rule, Blitz," said the blue figure sarcastically. "You upset Leaf."

"DETERMINATION," the purple figure interupted. "That's what a red SOUL means."

"Explains why they can both still RESET," Blitz nodded. "The rest of us lost DETERMINATION when _He_ caught us."

"Yeah, well, DETERMINATION isn't any of our strong suits," Rule muttered darkly.

"You lasted a long time," the smallest figure, a small, cyan girl said. "A lot longer than me. And I'm the one with PATIENCE."

"Dream, you're, like, four."

"Were." Blitz piped up.

The blue figure shot the orange one a glare. "Wow, Blitz, nice tact."

Chara was only just now noticing that they could make out the figures more clearly. Blitz, Dream, and the blue SOUL all appeared to be females, while Rule, the green SOUL ("Leaf"?) and the purple SOUL were all male.

"Who are you?" Chara asked, rubbing their eyes as they sat up.

"We're the Six SOULs," the purple figure explained.

"I'll introduce you," Rule offered. "I'm Rule. I was JUSTICE. The orange SOUL is Blitz. She was BRAVERY. The green SOUL is Leaf, or KINDNESS. The little light blue SOUL is Dream, who, as she said, was PATIENCE. Miss grumpy dark blue SOUL is Willow. She's INTEGRITY. And finally, our favorite brainiac, the purple SOUL, is Ink. He was PERSERVERANCE."

Chara's head, already throbbing, felt worse with all the new information it had to absorb. "Um, hi. I'm-"

"Chara," Blitz interrupted.

"We know," Willow explained, glaring at Blitz, sending a silent reprimand to her for interrupting Chara.

"You…. you do?"

"Yeah. There's a part of us still…. still stuck _There_ ," Ink said, nervously adjusting a thick pair of spectacles on his face. "You know… dying with unfinished buisness and all that."

"What sort of unfinished business?" Chara asked curiously.

" _Revenge_ ," spat Willow.

"JUSTICE might be a better word," Leaf said quickly.

"I want him to _suffer_ ," hissed Willow. " _Revenge_ fits what I want _just fine_."

Chara finally looked around. They seemed to be in a pure white room, with no windows or doors.

"Am… am I dead?"

"No." Ink shook his head. "You're fine."

"Then what I am doing talking to the Six SOULs _He_ collected?" Chara asked, their voice laced with confusion.

"We wanted to talk to you." Rule shrugged, adjusting his cowboy hat and taking out one of his guns to examine it.

"His little experiments made it… easier for us to communicate with other SOULs, but… only after one of the experiments was…. activated." Ink looked uncomfortable.

Chara paled. "I…. One of them activated?"

Dream nodded. "You heard _His_ voice. He said your trigger word. You… um, you went into attack mode."

"FIGHT mode might be more accurate," Leaf muttered, though his voice was a bit thoughtful.

"Did I hurt Frisk?" Chara demanded, looking between the different SOULs. "Are they okay?"

"Don't worry, Frisk is fine," Leaf soothed.

"Sans didn't lie about that. You only went after him. He was closest to _His_ voice."

"Is… is Papa okay?"

"I mean, aside from you biting him, yeah. But then again, he's all healed now. It only hurt when you were doing it."

Chara sighed in relief before looking around again. "You said you wanted to talk to me. About what?"

"We wanted to talk about your future. The future of humans. The future of monsters." Willow looked down at Chara, her slim but muscular body intimidating Chara. She was powerful even if she didn't look it. It was a bit intimidating. How had he managed to keep her prisoner? How had Chara and Frisk managed to escape _Him_ if she hadn't?

"You know," said Leaf quietly, "the King and Queen don't know how he really got our SOULs."

"What?" Chara's head shot up, curiosity burning in their eyes. "How?"

"Simple," Rule replied. He was holding the little Dream close, as if trying to comfort her. She looked to be the most frightened of the SOULs. "He lied. He said he found us and couldn't save us. Said we were too injured from our falls."

Blitz scoffed then. "He said he took our SOULs to _honor our memories_."

Chara shuddered. "And they believed him?"

Ink nodded solemnly. "They didn't have any reason not to. We're the only thing he lies about."

"But if they knew the truth…" Leaf suggested, looking up as a small smile graced his face.

"Perhaps the King and Queen would keep him away from humans from now on," Rule finished.

"She- the Queen I mean- goes to the Ruins to look for fallen humans because he always says he couldn't heal any of our injuries before we died. But she's the best at healing magic, so she's trying to save anyone else who falls." Dream explained all this while climbing up Rule and perching herself on his shoulders. The SOUL of JUSTICE, meanwhile, just looked a bit uncomfortable with the way she was gripping his hair in her small fists.

"Wait," Chara said, looking up in shock. "So that goat monster we saw when we escaped just before Papa found us-"

"Yeah," Blitz nodded. "She was trying to help any humans out. She wouldn't have hurt you or Frisk. But, to be fair, she is a goat monster. Anyone would be freaked out to see that if they weren't expecting it."

"So…. so you want me to tell the King and Queen what _He_ did?" Chara suddenly felt sick. "But…. But Papa says they almost have all the SOULs they need. If they get their hands on me and Frisk, then we might not live long anyway. He might get in trouble but we might still die." Chara whimpered at the thought of losing Frisk like that. They didn't think they had enough DETERMINATION left to see their sibling die again.

"You don't have to do anything," Rule replied firmly. "You can do whatever you feel is the best choice for you. It was merely a suggestion on our part." He carefully lowered himself down to Chara's level, careful not to jostle Dream from her perch on his shoulders. "Chara, you have everything you want, yes?"

"Y-yes," Chara agreed, thinking back to how blissful their time in Sans's lab had been, enjoying having a loving father, a loving and DETERMINED sibling, and even a pet dog.

"Then don't let us try to take it from you. If you want to tell Asgore and Toriel what he did to you, Frisk, and the rest of us, that's fine, but if you don't, that's your decision and we won't dispute it."

Blitz opened her mouth, her expression indicating an intent to argue, but Willow lifted her off the ground while Leaf clapped a hand over her mouth and Ink placed his notebook over the green SOUL's hand for good measure.

"Don't even think about it," Ink hissed, his tone unusually dark and fierce.

Rule ignored the other SOULs, instead ruffling Chara's hair. "Do what is best for you," he said firmly. "Don't worry about the rest of us."

"We should let them get back to sleep," Ink interjected. "They need rest after what happened today."

"Right," Rule nodded, standing up. Dream squeaked as she nearly lost her hold on his neck, but Leaf had quickly moved to catch her and replace her on the yellow SOUL's back.

"Get some rest, Chara," Willow encouraged. Chara didn't know why, but somehow Willow wasn't intimidating to them anymore, though nothing about her had changed in the slightest. Maybe it was just the change of tone in her voice.

"If you ever need us, we'll be here," Ink assured them.

"And don't worry about trying to get here yourself if you need us," Rule added. "We'll bring you ourselves."

Chara felt their eyes beginning to close. At the same time, their body was becoming heavy again.

"Sleep well," Dream's voice murmured, and Chara fell into a dreamless sleep.

~(*)~

Chara turned over and scrunched up their nose as it was attacked by a thick, fluffy fur. After sneezing, they pried open their red eyes and looked up to see Sans. The skeleton had climbed into the bed to hold them while they slept at some point and was now fast asleep himself. One arm was wrapped gently around their small, skinny body, holding them close to him. Chara sighed, relieved, and rested their head on Sans's chest. They wished they could stay this way forever- it was so peaceful- but their stomach growled in irritation and Chara sighed. They felt as if they hadn't eaten in weeks. They struggled to sit up a bit in Sans's arms and patted his cheekbones with their small hands.

"Papa. I'm hungry."

Sans blinked open his eye sockets open slowly. Then he glanced over at Chara and smiled, looking a bit relieved.

"You're finally up. I was getting worried, baby bones." He gently wrapped Chara in a hug, holding them close. Chara sighed, snuggling against Sans's chest. "Papa's warm."

Sans laughed. "Come on, baby bones. You said you were hungry, yeah?"

"Yeah!" Chara nodded, their red eyes widening to emphasize their point.

"Better get some food in ya, then, kiddo. All ya are is _skin and bones_."

Chara giggled at the joke and eagerly seized Sans's hand with their own as he led them into the kitchen.

It was cinnamon buns for breakfast. Sans had had the kids long enough to discover their favorite treats, and with Chara not feeling well for so long he thought they'd earned a bit of a treat. They'd scarfed down three buns and were starting on their fourth when they finally looked up at Sans, who was watching them with a bemused and fond expression.

"Papa, how's Frisk?"

"They're fine, kiddo. Mostly just worried about you. You've been asleep for almost four days."

Chara stared at Sans. " _Four days_?"

"Yup. That first night, when you woke up, you seemed really tired. Then for about two nights and a day you tossed and turned in your sleep. Seemed like you were having nightmares. You finally calmed down but if I tried to wake you up it didn't work. Finally I figured since your vital signs were fine I'd just let you sleep until you woke up on your own. You seemed completely exhausted."

He paused. "I only left your side to take care of Frisk. Otherwise I was right here with you. They kept asking me how badly He hurt you." Sans paused, looking into Chara's blood red eyes as if searching for something. "Who is ' _He_ ', Chara?"

Chara flinched and looked away, wanting so badly to refuse to answer or to run away. "I…. I don't wanna talk about it, Papa."

Sans sighed, nodding. "I didn't think you would. It was worth a shot though. But, Chara," he added, his voice growing serious, "you can tell me anything. Okay? I won't judge you or be mad at you. I want to keep you kiddos safe, and I swear I will. Whenever you're ready to talk, I'm ready to listen."

Chara nodded, relieved at Sans's words. They had feared he would try to pry the answer out of them rather than allowing them to wait until they were ready to tell him everything.

"Finish your cinnamon bun, kiddo." Sans encouraged, ruffling their light brown hair.

~(*)~

Alphys tripped as she hurried along to the edge of Waterfall. She nearly dropped half her documents, but with a quick, twisting movement like an acrobat that was definitely not something Alphys believed she would ever be able to recreate again, she managed to steady them. She paused at Waterfall's edge, looking to Snowdin beyond. She shuddered. She _hated_ Snowdin with a passion. But, she gritted her teeth and pushed on, flinching at the immediate blast of icy cold.

She felt relieved when she realized there was no breeze. She didn't fancy spending extra time catching important papers that had blown away. She was also glad that her destination was not too far from Waterfall. She stopped before the small cabin and tentively knocked on the door. "S-Sans?" She called, her voice quavering. "S-Sans, can I please talk to you? I have s-some documents I need you to l-look over f-for me…."

The door swung open, but it was not Sans in the doorway. Instead, it was Papyrus. He struck a pose, one gloved hand held regally over the chest of his battle body where a heart might be if he were not a skeleton. "If it isn't the brilliant Dr. Alphys!" Papyrus yelled, as per usual. Alphys flinched.

"H-hi, Papyrus," she said nervously. "I-is S-Sans here? I-I need to talk to him, i-it's important…."

Papyrus's face seemed to fall despite being bone rather than muscle and therefore having very limited facial expression capabilities.

"No, I'm afraid not. Sans is…. Um…. Well, Sans isn't exactly living here at the moment, persay…."

"He's not?" Alphys groaned internally. Of course he wasn't. That was the way her luck always went.

"No, he's, uh…. What do you need him for?" Papyrus seemed torn for some reason. Maybe Sans didn't want to be bothered unless it was an emergency.

"I-I need him to go over these documents for me. K-King Asgore and Q-Queen T-Toriel said they really need them as soon as possible, and I…. Well…. I-I n-need his help."

"Well, in that case, seeing as it's so dire." Papyrus ushered Alphys inside, much to her confusion.

"Would you like some spaghetti?" Papyrus offered after insisting Alphys take a seat on the jangly couch. Forty-five gold clattered to the floor, the varying sized coins chinking together in a gentle, happy sound.

"N-no, thank you," Alphys replied politely. "I-I ate Instant Noodles b-before I came over.

This was not untrue, but Alphys left out the part where she only ate the noodles so she wouldn't have to lie to Papyrus. She couldn't stomach more inedible spaghetti of the great Papyrus's creation.

"I see. It's unfortunate your appetite could not wait a bit longer! My spaghetti is the best dish in the Underground!" Papyrus beamed proudly.

"I-it s-sure is," Alphys agreed, wanting to please the skeleton with the scarf.

"Perhaps you would like to take some home with you?" Papyrus suggested. "You could have it for dinner!"

"N-no, th-thanks," Alphys said, thinking fast. "I-I've g-got a lot of leftovers in m-my fridge already. Stuff f-from Mettaton's r-restaurant, and all…."

Papyrus nodded sagely. "Perfectly understandable. I'm sure his food is absolutely delicious, though it isn't quite as good as my perfectly prepared pasta."

"A-anyway, d-do you know where I can f-find S-Sans?" Alphys asked, trying to swallow the nervous lump that was forming in her throat. "I r-really n-need him, l-like I said…."

"Oh! Of course! I almost forgot why you'd come!" Papyrus replied, turning on his heel to retrieve some paper and a pencil. "He's in our father's old laboratory. He's working on more of his experiments there. I'll draw you a map so you can find it more easily."

Alphys was momentarily shocked that Sans was returning with such a passion to science, but tried not to let it show. She didn't know the skeleton that well, after all. Maybe this sort of thing was normal for him.

Papyrus finished drawing up his map- an extremely detailed one, too- and handed it to her.

"I would color it, but you seem to be in a bit of a hurry for that. I hope it's clear enough without color."

"It's perfect!" Alphys assured him. "Th-thank you, Papyrus!"

"You're welcome. Be sure to let Sans know how important he is to your task, or he might not let you in," Papyrus added. "Make sure he knows he is vital to your completion of it."

"I-I w-will," Alphys agreed. "Th-thank you again!"

Then she turned and headed back out into the chilly cold of Snowdin, feeling her feet touch the freezing powder just as Papyrus clicked the door to the warm house shut behind her.

~(*)~

The day seemed normal enough, which should have been Sans's warning that something was about to change. Chara had just recovered and, as they were no longer sleeping, they were playing with Frisk and Snowy in their room. Chara was currently pretending to be an evil sorcerer trying to steal the puppy of the good Princev Frisk.

As Sans tinkered with one of the old machines damanged by time and perhaps a hint of rust, a knock came at the door.

Sans froze. His SOUL appeared, thumping with anxiety. _Who was it? Why were they here? Did they know about Chara and Frisk? Should I fight them if they try to take them?_ Sans glowered then. _I don't have a choice. I'll be dusted before anyone takes my baby bones from me._

The knock came again.

Sans rushed over to Chara and Frisk's bedroom. "Chara, Frisk, listen to me. This is very important. I want you to be absolutely silent and to promise me you won't leave this room until I come for you myself. I'm going to lock you in. No matter what happens, no matter what you hear, you _stay here_. Do you understand me?"

Both twins seemed frightened by Sans's dark and serious tone. Nervously, Chara nodded. "W-we understand, Papa."

Frisk signed an agreement, nodding their head as they did so.

Sans nodded, satisfied. "Play quietly or read some of the books. You're going to be safe in here if Papa has anything to say about it. Okay?"

"Okay." Chara spoke as Frisk nodded.

Sans quickly shut the door and, as promised, locked it tight. He squared his shoulders and walked to the door as a third knock sounded.

"Who is it?" He demanded, his voice slightly hostile.

"I-it's Alphys," came the nervous, quavering voice. "I-I'm s-sorry to come unannounced, b-but I went to Snowdin and y-you weren't there but P-Papyrus drew me this m-map and s-said y-you'd help me and I r-really need you t-to…."

Alphys trailed off.

Sans sighed. He couldn't exactly turn Alphys away when she needed him. She was a good friend to him and even ate Papyrus's culinary concoctions he passed off as "spaghetti". The least he could do was assist her when she needed it.

"Alright," he conceded, opening the door to the lab and allowing her inside. "What do you need?"

~(*)~

They were two thirds of the way through Alphys's documents. The day was reaching night, and Sans wondered if it was twilight on the surface or if the darkness had already taken over the sky and painted it black with pinpricks of white light dotting the thick, seemingly impenetrable blanket.

True to their word, Chara and Frisk had kept completely silent in their room. Not a sound had been uttered, and even Snowy had been quiet. Not so much as a snuffle left the room.

Sans wondered if the twins were asleep by now or if they were being kept awake by hunger. He wanted to take one of his shortcuts to their room to check on them, but the risk of Alphys discovering them seemed too great to chance it. He hoped the twins knew he wasn't keeping their dinner from them on purpose. Something told him they'd been starved in the past, and he didn't want to risk them losing trust in him. Not when he could be getting closer to some real answers from them.

Sans looked over at Alphys as he finished proofreading a document, putting it in her "To Correct" pile. Alphys was busy typing up another document with Sans's notes taken into account and looking exhausted.

"We can stop for the night," Sans suggested, trying not to sound hopeful, and managing to succeed. "We could pick this back up tomorrow if you like."

Alphys looked suddenly panicked. "N-no, no, we should finish it tonight!" she insisted. "The King and Queen s-stressed that these were of the utmost importance! I need to finish them as soon as I p-possibly can!"

Sans sighed, defeated. "Then let's at least drink some coffee or something. You look dead on your feet, and I'm _bone tired_."

Even despite her drowsiness, Alphys groaned. "Sans, p-please, be s-serious!"

Sans chuckled at her reaction and went to the kitchen to make them both some coffee and cinnamon buns to get them through the rest of their work.

~(*)~

 _Frisk panted as the cold, merciless hands checked their wrist and then their neck, feeling their pulse while the figure checked other machines with other results. The terrible voice they despised and feared so much tsked disapprovingly._

What poor results, Subject 07. I would have thought you'd be getting better at this, but you seem to be failing.

 _Frisk held back a terrified whimper with difficulty._

 _The figure turned away from them to the horizontal operating table that Chara lay upon, bound and helpless. The figure once again raised a scalpel and began to cut into the flesh on Chara's chest, drawing blood. Curious fingers pulled at the wound, trying to examine the muscle. Chara hissed in pain through their teeth, and Frisk began to cry, sobbing as their sibling tried not to show any fear or weakness in front of this monster._

 _The figure turned back to Frisk and slapped them across the face._

Silence, Subject 07, i _t snarled, wrapping a hand around Frisk's exposed and vulnerable throat._ If you continue this outburst, I will remove your SOUL for the King and Queen much sooner than I would have otherwise. Do you wish for that to happen?

 _Frisk gasped with fear and desperately tried to stop their sobs, but found themself unable. The threat had only increased their fear and made the crying worse._

 _"Leave them alone!" Chara screamed then, hatred burning in their red eyes. Frisk shook with terror then, trying to sign at Chara to stop, but their sibling either didn't see the letters Frisk was fingerspelling to them or they didn't care._

What did you say to me, Subject 08? _the voice demanded, sickly calm._

 _"I said stay away from them you disgusting freak!" Chara screeched. "Don't touch them, or I swear I'll tear you to pieces!"_

Is that so.

 _Suddenly Frisk felt the figure's hand plunge into their chest, ripping out their physical heart as well as their SOUL._

 _"FRISK!" Chara wailed, horrified, as Frisk's vision started to go black._

What are you going to do now, Subject 08?

 _Frisk saw Chara grit their teeth and heard their voice which sounded like a million miles away._

 _"I'm going to-"_

 _Oh, so they were back in this room, the black room, with the orange buttons, and Chara was there to slam their hand on-_

~(*)~

Sans dropped the coffee pot as the most bloodcurdling, pained scream he had ever heard in his life pierced the silence of the laboratory.

 _The twins._

Forgetting the coffee, forgetting the guest, forgetting even his shortcuts, Sans dashed back to the main lab where Alphys was on the floor looking around for the source of the terrible sound.

"Frisk! Chara! I'm coming!" Sans yelled, fumbling with the key that didn't seem to want to fit in the lock.

Finally the skeleton managed to force the door open. Frisk sat on their bed, and for the first time, Sans saw their eyes were wide open with horror. They were a bright, lovely blue, and Sans might have complimented them if Frisk wasn't clutching at their heart while their DETERMINED red SOUL pounded as if they were being hunted by a deadly creature with a thirst for blood.

"Frisk!" Sans was at their side in an instant, lifting them into his arms and hugging them close. "Frisk, honey, it's okay. It's okay. You're going to be alright, little one. Shh. Shh. Papa's here. Papa's not going to let anything happen to you. Hush, precious one."

Slowly, Frisk seemed to calm down from their panic. Then, they burst into tears, clinging to Sans as they sobbed, their little chest heaving.

"Oh, honey, I know, I know. You're okay, darling, you're okay. Papa's here and you're one is going to hurt you, my darling. Papa won't let anyone hurt you ever again."

Sans felt someone else cling to his arm and gently pulled Chara close so they were in the hug as well. "You're both going to be okay," he promised, giving both children a skeleton kiss on their hair. "Papa promises. And Papa never breaks his promises."

"Papa, _He_ -"

"Sans?"

The skeleton and both of his children froze. Chara wrapped a protective hand around Frisk's wrist. If it was going to come down to a fight, Frisk was going to be behind Chara until the bitter end. Chara would fall before Frisk. They weren't going to let Frisk die first ever again.

"Sans, w-who are they?"

Frisk tightened their hold on Sans, who carefully hugged both children tighter to his own body and stood, somehow managing to keep himself steady despite the fear he felt. He was even managing to keep his SOUL in his chest where it belonged.

"Alphys." Sans cleared his throat. "These are my children."

Alphys stared at the two clinging to the shortest skeleton she knew. "But… but they're _humans_!" She protested. "Sans, one more SOUL and we break the barrier! We could all go free!"

Sans glared at her. "At the cost of their lives."

"N-not both of them," Alphys reasoned. "Y-you could p-pick one to keep…."

"You want me to choose which of my children _dies_?" Sans spat, disgusted. "Do you hear how that sounds?"

"Th-then let them pick!" Alphys replied. This seemed perfectly obvious to her. Just one more SOUL, right? One more life for the freedom of all monsterkind? Wasn't that a fair trade?

"All the other humans who fell died of their falls," Sans growled. "I'm not going to murder one of my children."

"Sans, please, be reasonable, if you let one of them go-"

" _I refuse to sacrifice one of my children to break the barrier_!" Sans roared then, his eye glinting with blue magic. Alphys jumped at the outburst, but Chara and Frisk seemed to be calming down despite Sans seeming to grow more furious with each word Alphys spoke. It was comforting for them to know that Sans would indeed keep his many promises to protect them. This was the second time he'd refused to offer them up to break the barrier, and he didn't seem close to wavering.

"These are just _children_ ," Sans spat, fury clear in his voice. "They have done nothing to warrant being murdered to break the barrier. All they've done is asked for some love and kindness, and you want to send them to die?"

Alphys looked away, contemplating. Finally, she sighed. "Fine. I can see you aren't going to change your mind."

"And?" Sans demanded.

"I won't say anything about them. Either of them."

Sans nodded slowly. "Good." He glanced down at Chara and Frisk, the latter of whom was hiccuping as their crying stopped and using the heel of their hand to wipe away tears from their ocean blue eyes.

Sans pressed a sweet skeleton kiss to Frisk's forehead and then a second to Chara's cheek. "Come on, baby bones. You must be starving. Dinnertime."

~(*)~

Alphys watched as the two human children dug ravenously into their Steaks in the Shape of Mettaton's Face. Both seemed desperately hungry, and Alphys felt bad that they had been hiding out in their room for so long without food just so they would be safe from her.

She wanted to ask questions about them, but Sans was seemingly angry, so she kept her mouth shut, instead working on the papers he was correcting for her. The proofread documents were being added to her pile for retyping far faster than they had been before. Alphys wondered if it was nervous energy being put to good use of if Sans just wanted her to leave. It was probably the second option.

Suddenly, the _Gosick_ theme song filled the room, and Alphys hurried to find her phone in her lab coat pocket to turn it off.

Chara looked up, curiosity blazing in their eyes. They were the color of blood. It frightened Alphys, if she was being honest.

"Is that _Gosick_?" Chara asked with interest. "Frisk and I love that anime."

Sans had found some anime DVDs at the dump and had been letting the twins watch them on days when they felt more lazy and less interested in playing. He'd quickly found that they were picky, but not faint hearted. _Attack on Titan_ was out because they despised the constant whining from Eren, the main character, but the blood and gore of anime like _Elfen Lied_ , _Another_ , and _Higurashi no naku Koro ni_ were fine as long as the plot was good. Frisk didn't even flinch during some of the more gruesome scenes that might have turned Sans's stomach if he had one. He suspected they watched the darker stuff because Chara liked it, though, just as he suspected Chara watched the lighter stuff for Frisk. Chara always seemed bored during lighthearted anime unless they were really funny.

 _Gosick_ was a compromise anime for the two. It was plenty dark for Chara's tastes, but also plenty lighthearted and bright for Frisk. They watched _Gosick_ the most, usually binging the whole, short show in a day when they decided to watch it. Sans wouldn't be surprised if they could quote the whole series by heart at this point.

Alphys stared at the children with surprise. "Y-you l-like anime?"

Chara and Frisk nodded together.

"Oh my gosh!" Alphys squealed. "This is great! Have you seen _Mew Mew Kissy Cutie_?"

The twins shook their heads.

"Oh, I'll have to show you, it's this beautiful story about a girl with cat ears named Mew Mew and she…."

~(*)~

Alphys rambled on about anime for two hours before finally the last document had been corrected. The twins were struggling to keep their heavy eyes open, so Sans picked them up from their seats where each of them left behind two Starfait glasses and a napkin full of cookie crumbs.

She watched as Sans gently tucked each child into bed and gently placed loving kisses on their cheeks. "Goodnight, baby bones. I love you."

"Love you too, Papa," Chara mumbled as Frisk tried half heartedly to sign a response.

Before he left the room, Chara motioned for Sans to come closer and he did so, bending down so Chara could whisper to him so softly that neither Alphys or Frisk could hear them.

"Okay, baby bones," Sans agreed, gently smoothing down Chara's hair. "We'll talk about it in the morning. Right now you just focus on getting some sleep."

Then Sans walked out of the room, shutting the door with a small click.

He turned to Alphys. "You should get home and get some rest too, so you can drop those documents off at the castle first thing in the morning," Sans told her.

"R-right…."

Sans noticed the nervous tone in Alphys's voice. "Don't even think about telling King Asgore or Queen Toriel about them," he warned.

"N-no, it's not that, it's just… d-do you think I could come back some time? T-to watch anime with them, m-maybe?"

Sans stared at her, considering the request. Finally he sighed, and nodded. "Sure. That's fine. I'm sure they'd like to have someone else to spend some time with them occasionally."

"Th-thanks, Sans!" Alphys grinned, gathering up her documents, half of which were now stored safely in a tote bag Sans had given her to make the journey back to Hotland a bit easier. "B-bye!"

"Bye, Alphys," Sans replied, shutting the door behind her.

Alone in the lab, Sans thought back to putting the kids to bed and Chara's words to him before he'd left them to sleep, words he was sure were only being spoken because of Frisk's terrified outburst when they'd awoken earlier in the night from a deep sleep.

" _Papa, I need to tell you about_ Him."

~(*)~

 **(AN: Two things really quick! 1. Chara's "trigger" word is not meant to demean actual triggers. I myself have actual legitimate triggers, not just "this offends me". However, it seemed like the only word I could think of that children might know to describe the fact that "He" basically programmed Chara to attack whenever he said "determination". 2. Chara doesn't necessarily like dark anime for the blood/gore/death; they just think it generally has a more intelligent story that makes for an interesting plot. If an anime is tame but has an intelligent story they'll watch it and enjoy it, but in general they're very picky, as Sans mentions. Frisk is less picky than Chara which is generally why they'll watch lighter anime, but they know that anime is fiction so the darker stuff doesn't bother them unless it's _really_ intense. Thanks for your attention! I'm already working on Chapter Four, so hopefully that will be up shortly. Please read and review in the meantime! 3)**


	4. Chapter 4

Sans awoke at the table he and Alphys had been working at to a bark from Snowy. At first he assumed the dog was just hungry, but then there was a loud bang.

"SANS!" screamed a familiar voice.

Sans froze.

 _Bang! Bang!_

"Open up, Sans! I know you're in there!" Undyne roared. Sans's eye socket turned blue with magic, preparing to shut the bedroom door to protect the twins, but-

 _CRASH!_

The door flew off its hinges as Undyne threw her weight forcefully against it. The fish warrior pointed at the short skeleton with an accusing finger. "You!"

"Me?" Sans asked, his eye socket quickly going back to normal as he began trying to play it cool. Maybe Undyne didn't-

"You've completely abandoned your sentry post!"

Oh. He hadn't really thought she didn't know.

"What can I say?" Sans shrugged. "Watching for humans is boring. Science is much more interesting." He smiled lazily at her, and Undyne growled. "If you're going to quit your job you need to give notice!" she screamed. "I could have spent this time training someone to take over your post for you, but no, you-"

Snowy began barking from his place in the open doorway of Chara and Frisk's bedroom. In a desperate attempt to keep him quiet, Chara ran over to the annoying dog and lifted him into their arms to put a hand over his mouth to silence him.

A blue magical spear struck the ground where they had been a second before snatching up the pup, making them scream in fear.

"Sans, I don't believe it!" Undyne crowed happily. "You actually found a human!"

Frisk screamed too, horrified as they realized the danger their sibling was in.

"No way!" Undyne was beaming now. "You actually caught _two_? That's one more than we need!" She laughed. "I guess you can keep the extra SOUL for yourself, then!"

Undyne turned to look at the skeleton, who was struggling to keep his anger in check until her guard was completely down. "But why didn't you take them to King Asgore right away? Were you doing experiments on them or something? I know that-"

She was cut off as Sans's eye suddenly flashed blue as he turned Undyne's SOUL blue and threw her onto the ceiling.

"Sans, what the-!?"

"Don't you dare talk about taking my kids' SOULs," Sans growled. "I'll dust you if you try."

"What are you talking about!?" Undyne demanded. "Those are _humans_ , Sans! As in human SOULs! As in breaking the barrier! Seeing the surface!"

"I'm not using Chara or Frisk to see the surface," Sans snapped.

Undyne growled and three spears appeared before her. She tried to throw them at Chara, but Sans slammed her into the wall and the spears disappeared.

"Don't even try it."

"Sans, stop it!" Undyne growled. "As your superior I order you to capture the humans and release me!"

"I don't take orders from you or anyone else in the Underground," Sans hissed. "There is absolutely no way I am hurting them."

"What would your father say!?" Undyne demanded.

"If my father would kill innocent children to escape the Underground then I want nothing to do with him."

"They're _humans_!" Undyne protested. "How innocent can they possibly be!?"

"Say whatever you like," Sans spat. "You won't change my mind. I won't have their blood on my hands. Especially not after all I've done to help them trust me."

"Asgore is going to have you dusted for treason to the crown if you do this!" Undyne warned. "And don't think I won't tell him! If you want to keep this a secret you'll have to dust me!"

Sans scoffed and tossed her aside, to the open doorway, quickly teleporting over to block her from getting to the twins.

"Go and tell Asgore if you want. And tell him if he tries to take either of their SOULs, I won't hesitate to dust the King of the Mountain."

Undyne glared at him and scoffed in disgust. "You're sick, Sans," she snarled. "Turning on your own kind for _humans_."

"You're sick for wanting to kill six year olds," Sans retorted.

Undyne held his cold gaze for a few moments, then turned and limped away, heading towards Hotland.

Sans sighed. He had really hoped things wouldn't go this way.

~(*)~

Sans had managed to calm down Frisk and Chara with difficulty. Chara had nervously seated themself beside Sans, but he'd gently kissed their head. "We don't have to talk about it right now. Go play for a bit and relax, baby bones."

Chara had sighed in relief and headed for their room and their Winter epic.

Sans was more concerned with Frisk, who seemed scared of him now. They shuddered when his bony hands touched them and whimpered when he got close. Sans wondered if this was because they were still tense from their nightmare or if it was due to the way he'd dealt with Undyne when she'd tried to capture the twins earlier. He really hoped it wasn't his fault; he'd never meant to scare Frisk or Chara, only to protect them.

He walked over to the couch where Frisk sat quietly watching _Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!_ and munching on Monster Candies.

"Can I talk to you, kiddo?" Sans asked gently, sinking down next to them.

Frisk nodded slowly, looking a bit frightened.

Sans smiled, and began to sign Frisk, as he knew they loved it when he did.

 _Did I do something to upset you?_ He asked, his small falling as he considered the possibility.

Frisk shook their head firmly.

 _Then what?_ Was it really just the nightmare that had them so on edge?

 _Him._ Frisk fingerspelled back simply.

Sans frowned sadly at the thought of whatever this _Him_ had done to the twins. He gently pulled Frisk to his side in a comforting hug.

"He's never going to hurt you or Chara again, Frisk," Sans murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to their dark brown hair. "I promise you that. No one will, but especially not _Him_."

Frisk looked up at him, then slowly opened their eyes so he could see the beautiful ocean blue irises.

Sans smiled at them and gently planted another kiss on their forehead. "You know, Frisk," Sans smiled fondly, "you have beautiful blue eyes."

Frisk blushed at the compliment and buried their face in his jacket, a small whine of protest escaping their lips as they hid from him.

"Silly baby bones," Sans murmured, ruffling their hair affectionately.

~(*)~

Chara was nervously playing with their fingers while Sans watched patiently. They had finally come back to talk about _Him_ , but seemed to be having trouble finding the courage to start.

Chara's red eyes flicked nervously towards their bedroom door. They wished they had waited longer.

"How about this," Sans said softly, placing a bony hand over Chara's, "why don't we start with something a little easier, okay?"

Chara nodded, relief flooding their body as Sans smiled encouragingly at them.

"Can you tell me why you and Frisk climbed the mountain?"

Chara's face fell slightly, but yes, they could tell Papa about this. They were sure Sans wouldn't be furious with them if they told him this story. Maybe disappointed, but they couldn't imagine any angry shouting.

"Our…. Our parents weren't very nice to us," Chara whispered. "Th-they wouldn't feed us a lot of the t-time, a-and…."

"And?" Sans asked softly, keeping the anger boiling in him rather than letting it get to the surface where it could frighten Chara.

"Th-they would hurt me," Chara mumbled, one hand going to their arm. "Th-they would b-burn me and c-cut me. Th-they s-sometimes did it to F-Frisk, b-but…." Chara finally looked into Sans's eyes, DETERMINATION blazing in them like a fire. "I-I wouldn't let them h-hurt Frisk i-if I could stop i-it."

"How would you stop it, honey?" Sans asked softly, wrapping Chara in a comforting hug.

"I-I would t-tell them they c-could do wh-whatever they w-wanted to m-me," Chara mumbled, suddenly looking away again. They couldn't meet Sans's gaze; that part felt like something that would make him mad.

"So you went to Mount Ebott and fell?" Sans asked, petting their hair to try and calm them down.

"We jumped."

Sans froze mid-pet.

"You…. You jumped?" he repeated, fighting to keep his voice calm. He wasn't mad at Chara or Frisk, but he was furious with these so-called 'parents'.

"I…. I thought it would be easier to j-just go away and n-never go back there so they c-could hurt us," Chara mumbled. "I…. I felt b-bad that F-Frisk was going to d-die, b-but they said they were okay with it a-as long as we went t-together…."

Sans struggled to hold back tears. He couldn't imagine his sweet, loving baby bones attempting suicide. The thought broke his heart, but even more than that, it sparked a fury in him to anyone who would dare harm the sweet little baby bones.

"Chara," he murmured, gently pulling Chara onto his lap and hugging them close, "I will never hurt you like that and no one else ever will either. When we get to the surface, I swear to you that I'll keep you safe from those people who called themselves parents. You and Frisk don't need to be afraid of them anymore."

Chara looked up at him, and he saw tears in their red eyes. They gave him a shaky smile and rested their head on his chest. "O-okay, Papa."

Sans shifted so they were now lying down on the couch. "That's enough for now, baby bones," Sans murmured, rubbing their back gently. "Try to get some sleep."

~(*)~

Sans awoke from his nap with Chara to a knock at the door.

"S-Sans?" called a familiar nervous voice. "I-I came by with _Mew Mew Kissy Cutie_ and some other animes…. C-can I come in?"

The skeleton yawned and stretched, carefully shifting Chara off of his chest and laying them down on the couch to continue their nap without him.

He looked into the kids' room as he headed for the door and saw Frisk on the floor, petting Snowy. The dog looked as if he were in heaven. He probably was.

Sans opened the door and immediately narrowed his eye sockets when he caught sight of Alphys's companion.

"What are _you_ doing here?" he spat at Undyne, fury evident in his voice.

"I'm here to watch anime with your little nerds, pipsqueak!" Undyne roared.

Sans smirked. "Is that so?"

"U-Undyne, r-remember what I s-said b-before?" Alphys asked nervously.

The fish warrior sighed.

"I talked to Alphys about the humans."

Sans would have raised his eyebrows if he had them. "And?"

"And I'm not going to hurt your brats. Or tell Asgore about them. Or, you know, any of that." Undyne scowled, then threw and arm behind her back to rub her neck. She looked away, her expression abashed. "...I guess I wasn't really thinking about your feelings since you're sort of a parent now. So… I'M SORRY, PUNK!" Undyne roared the apology, then turned and found a huge boulder near the door to suplex so she could get rid of the mushy feelings in her chest.

Sans sighed. "That's the best I'm going to get, I suppose." He stood aside. "Come on in." He eyed the two monsters as they entered. "But I'm going to be watching you the whole time."

"Oh! Great! You can watch _Mew Mew Kissy Cutie_ with us too!" Alphys beamed.

Sans shook his head slightly. She really _was_ obsessed. Maybe the surface had a word for this strange condition that made Alphys obsess over fictional characters and write lengthy fanfiction.

"Frisk," Sans called, giving their doorframe a gentle rap with his knuckles, "Alphys and Undyne are here to watch that _Mew Mew Kissy Cutie_ anime with you and Chara."

Frisk looked up from Snowy's belly rub and caught sight of the fish warrior. They shot Sans a worried look, but he just smiled at them. "Don't worry, kiddo. Papa already talked to her. She's not gonna hurt you kiddos."

Frisk smiled, then signed to Sans.

"Yeah, Snowy can watch too. I don't care about dogs on the couch."

Frisk beamed at him.

"Just make sure he behaves, or he might end up _in the doghouse_."

Frisk giggled at the joke and lifted Snowy into their arms, hugging the pup to their chest.

"Wanna wake up Chara?" Sans asked innocently.

Frisk shot him a devious smiled and he grinned back. "I thought so."

He carried Frisk to the couch and plopped them gently beside it. Frisk looked at Chara, sleeping peacefully on their back with their fingers interlaced over their chest.

Frisk held Snowy over Chara's belly and carefully plopped him down.

Chara's red eyes shot open. "Wazzat?"

Frisk giggled as Chara looked around wildly for whatever had woken them. Then the red-eyed child yelped as Snowy began licking their face, wagging his little fluffy tail.

"Frisk, you little nerd!" Chara chided, grabbing their sibling in a headlock and giving them a gentle noogie while Frisk squealed in protest, patting Chara's hands so they would release them.

"Alright, kiddo, is that's enough," Sans said, gently pulling Chara's hands away so Frisk could escape. "Alphys and Undyne are here to watch that _Kissy Mew_ anime or whatever it was called."

" _Mew Mew Kissy Cutie_!" Alphys chimed in, holding up a DVD case and pointing at the title with one claw.

"Yeah, that," Sans agreed, gesturing to the case as well.

Chara wasn't paying attention to them though. Their red eyes were trained suspiciously on Undyne.

The Royal Guard held her hands up in a sign of surrender. "Easy, punk, I'm cool," she insisted.

Sans patted Chara on the head. "Don't worry about her, kiddo. Just sit with Frisk and eat some popato chisps and watch some anime with your old Papa Skelly Bones and his friends."

Chara turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow at him.

Sans glanced at Undyne and Alphys, then rethought his answer. "Okay, friends in progress."

Chara grumbled. "...I'm only sitting by Papa."

Sans smirked lazily. "I can live with that."

~(*)~

A few weeks had passed since Alphys and Undyne came over to watch _Mew Mew Kissy Cutie_. The anime hadn't been a favorite for either Chara or Frisk, but the twins had half-heartedly agreed with Alphys that the anime was great.

Alphys and Undyne came over regularly for Anime Wednesday and Friday, while Papyrus now joined them for Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday dinners. Most of these dinners were Papyrus's spaghetti, which Chara and Frisk bravely ate, but it was clear that they weren't the biggest fans of the taste. Sans had rescued them recently by making more dishes for dinner so the kids had more to eat besides heaping plates of strange tasting pasta.

Sans was getting more trusting of Undyne and Alphys, who Chara and Frisk each referred to as "Auntie", and Sans had smirked internally when that had started and every time it happened since. It was almost as if Chara and Frisk could sense the romantic tension between the two. Actually, he didn't doubt that. It was thick enough you could slice through it with a dagger if you were of a mind to.

Chara and Frisk were still getting used to his constant shouting, but Papyrus was now "Unca Pap", and he wore the name like a badge of honor. He constantly boasted to Sans, Alphys, Undyne, Chara, and Frisk that he was "easily the most fantastic 'unca' any human had ever had before".

Days were perfect, but Chara had to admit they were a bit curious about what was outside. Every time Sans answered the door, they caught glimpses of Waterfall outside. It looked beautiful. They didn't have a desire to leave, but they did wish they knew more about the outside world. After all, outside had those pretty blue flowers and the pale, calming light shimmering along the purple walls of that section of the Underground.

After all, it wasn't like there was any six year old without even a bit of curiosity inside them. However, their experiences had quelled curiosity strong enough to encourage wandering past their boundary in both Chara and Frisk. Chara suspected Frisk was curious about the strange things they could see in Waterfall beyond as well, but aside from wondering why they occasionally saw monsters bending to the blue flowers or what the strange plaques on the wall said, they were content.

After all, satisfaction may bring it back, but first curiosity had to kill the cat.

~(*)~

The day started like any other.

Sans had made breakfast for the twins had fixed a bowl of dog food for Snowy. Then he'd gone to wake the twins.

He didn't need to though. As soon as he reached the door, he heard pained whimpers and groans. Worried, Sans peeked inside the bedroom. "Chara? Frisk?"

Chara mumbled something venomously when the light from the lab came into the dark room, then groaned as they held their pillow tightly over their face. Frisk moaned in pain and turned over on their side, pressing their face where the bed met the wall and lying with their hands over their stomach.

"What's wrong?" Sans asked, worried. The twins never acted like this before. Sure, they weren't always up for mornings, but they never acted like they were in physical _pain_.

Because Frisk was lying on their hands, they couldn't sign an answer to Sans. So, for the first time in a long time, Sans heard Frisk's sweet voice, though this time it sounded weak and hurt, rather than cute and happy.

" _Sick_ ," they moaned, and Chara moaned too, as if in agreement.

Sans paused. True, she wasn't a medical doctor, but Alphys was a doctor, and she knew more than almost any monster about humans; certainly more than any other monster aware of the twins' existence.

So, he went over to the twins' beds and gently tucked them in snugly, fluffed their pillows, and fetched them each a cold, wet washcloth to put over their foreheads and eyes.

"You two hungry at all?" he asked, but they both cringed at the idea of eating food, so he merely gave them each a gentle, awkward hug and a kiss before departing with a "I'll be back in a minute, you just try to feel better".

Then he headed over to his lab tables to find his misplaced cellphone.

~(*)~

"Sans, like I said, I'm not-"

"Alphys, you've said that three times already. You're the best I've got considering my options. Are you going to help me or not?"

Alphys sighed, glancing at the door to the twins' room.

"Fine," Alphys agreed. "I'll see what I can do."

The scientist picked up a bag she'd brought with her and entered the room.

"Chara? Frisk? How do you feel?" Alphys asked as she shuffled inside.

" _Fuck off_ ," Chara snarled fiercely. Sans choked as he tried to stifle his laughter.

 _I'm giving this kid the best Giftmas present I can think up._

"U-um, c-c-can I t-t-take a l-l-look at y-y-you?" Alphys asked nervously, gesturing to her bag. "S-Sans will b-be here the whole t-t-time, s-so you'll b-be s-s-safe…."

" _No_ ," Chara hissed.

"How about you, baby bones?" Sans murmured, sitting down on Frisk's bed and lovingly ruffling their hair. "You okay with having Dr. Alphys take a look at you? I just want to help you feel better, but to do that I need to know why you feel so yucky in the first place."

 _Then will she go away and let us sleep?_ Frisk signed, looking exhausted and annoyed.

"Yes, sweetheart. I promise."

Frisk reluctantly sat up, leaning against Sans as they tried to stay awake.

Alphys hurriedly opened the bag she had brought along with her, and began pulling out what medical equipment she had. "Okay, let's start with vitals," Alphys said, mostly to herself.

Sans felt Frisk tense at his side. They gave a distressed whine. From the other side of the room, Chara growled sharply.

Sans gently lifted Frisk so they were on his lap rather than sitting next to them. He hugged them, pressing his face against their hair. "Shh, little one, shh. It's okay, precious one. Papa Skelly Bones is here."

That seemed to work; Sans's light mood appeared to put the child at ease. Frisk slowly allowed their body to relax and leaned back against the skeleton.

Sans smiled to himself.

"Don't worry about those scary words," Sans continued to soothe, gently rubbing Frisk's upper arm with one bony hand. "Papa isn't going to let anyone hurt his little Chara or Frisk. You can count on that, baby bones."

While he was speaking, Alphys finished getting out the medical equipment she was looking for. Sans took the thermometer she offered Frisk and after a short moment of stubbornness, they allowed him to stick it under their tongue. Alphys wrapped their arm with something strange and cold, then took Frisk's wrist in their claws to check their pulse while she squeezed a small pump. Frisk jumped as the strange wrap began to tighten around their arm.

"Frisk, it's okay," Sans assured them. "It's not going to hurt you, but it will be uncomfortable. It's not going to last very long, little one, I promise."

Frisk whined at him as the wrap grew tighter, and eventually he looked up, his eyes turning to black voids as he glared at Alphys.

"Hurry up."

"S-sorry," Alphys mumbled. After another two more pumps, she scribbled something down in a notebook and quickly allowed the wrap to loosen around Frisk's arm and removed it.

More scribbling as she added her notes on Frisk's pulse and checked their temperature according to the thermometer. Then Alphys pulled out a stethoscope.

Frisk glared at the offending object and hissed softly.

"Hush, little one," Sans murmured, petting Frisk's hair and rocking them gently. "She won't hurt you." He paused, before growling softly. "Papa will blast her if she tries."

Alphys tried not to visibly shudder. She knew he would. She didn't want to be on the receiving end of a Gaster Blaster.

When the doctor had finished listening to Frisk's breathing, she produced a small wooden stick. "S-say 'aah'," Alphys instructed as her voice shook.

Frisk made a face and glanced up at Sans, as if looking for him to back them up.

"Just stick out your tongue," Sans said gently.

Frisk pouted, but obliged. Rather than "aah", a sound suspiciously like "fuuuuck" escaped Frisk. Sans snorted.

Paps was gonna hate this. He couldn't wait.

The short skeleton wondered vaguely where Chara had picked up such language. He didn't need to wonder where Frisk learned it. He was sure Chara had taught their sibling every curse word they knew.

He respected that.

Alphys nodded to herself as she removed the wooden stick from Frisk's tongue. "Okay."

Sans looked up from Frisk, who was sticking out their tongue and making soft spitting noises, as if the stick tasted of something disgusting.

"Well?" He demanded.

"I think I know wh-what's wrong," Alphys mumbled. "But I'm not totally sure…."

Sans tucked Frisk back into their bed and allowed them to to turn their back on Alphys and himself to try and sleep.

"Your turn, Chara Kitten," Sans said, trying to sound upbeat. "Why don't you come snuggle with Papa Snoozy Bones while Dr. Alphys tries to figure out your weird human biology?"

Chara glanced at Alphys, growling softly in their throat, before looking over at Sans. They relented, allowing him to lift them onto his lap and sighing as they settled themself beside him.

 _Papa Snoozy Bones_ , Sans mused to himself. He sure felt like snoozing. He needed a nap after all this.

Chara wasn't as willing to cooperate with Alphys as Frisk was, even with Sans there to comfort them. They snarled when Alphys got close and at slapped the blood pressure wrap and stethoscope when they were produced for them by Alphys's claws. They seemed defiant when it came to Alphys's attempts to examine them. When Sans reproduced the offending medical equipment, Chara seemed more reluctant and nervous than uncooperative.

With sighs of resignation, Chara would allow Alphys to continue the examination without further protest until the next medical item that angered them too much was offered up. Then they would strike it away from her claws and resume their defiance until Sans calmed them down with more gentle words of love and reassurance and persuaded them to allow the examination to continue.

When Alphys at last finished with Chara, Sans tucked them into bed too and gave them a gentle kiss on the forehead in the form of a soft bump. "Get some rest, Chara Kitten," he murmured, gently moving some light brown hair away from their scarlet eyes. "Papa will come in and check on you and Frisky Fox in a little bit, okay?"

Chara mumbled an agreement and Sans gave their shoulder a comforting squeeze before turning to lead Alphys out of the twins' bedroom.

"Well?" the skeleton demanded after closing the door. There was a faint _click_ as it shut.

"I-I believe the twins are suffering f-from a mild illness," Alphys explained, nervously pushing her glasses up her nose with a claw. "It's nothing too bad. It's probably from all the extra exposure to bacteria in the Underground. We have to deal with different germs and such down here and they haven't managed to build up an immunity yet."

Sans sighed. "Right. Should have guessed." It seemed so obvious- of course they would be more susceptible to the Underground's bacteria.

Well. He supposed that it made sense he would forget about that, seeing as he _was_ a skeleton. No immune system, and all that.

"So, what do I do?"

"I-I'll get you some books from the library about sickness and treating it. I-I'm sure it can't be t-too different between m-monster kids and h-human k-kids."

"Okay. Thanks, Alphys." The small, orange monster turned to scurry out the door.

Still worried about that threat to blast her, it seemed. That was fine. She should be worried. Without a certain degree of fear instilled in them he couldn't fully trust those who knew about the twins not to run to the king and queen or to attack them and extract their souls themselves.

The skeleton sighed and looked back over at the door. He hoped they would recover soon.

~(*)~

A few hours and six thick books later, Sans was ready. He knocked softly on the door. "Chara? Frisk? Sweethearts, I'm coming in, okay?"

"'K-kay…." he heard Chara mumble. Sans nodded to himself and stepped through the doorway.

"How are you feeling, kiddos?"

"S-sick," Chara whined.

"I know, baby bones, I know," Sans murmured sympathetically. "Is there anything Papa can do to make his baby bones feel better? Maybe get you a drink or a treat?"

Frisk raised their head a bit, looking interested.

"Yes, sweet Frisky Fox?" Sans smiled. "What can Papa get you?"

It was Chara who answered."D-do you have hot ch-chocolate here?" they asked.

"Why, indeed we do, Chara Kitten," Sans said with a grin. "Do you want that too, Frisky Fox?"

A small nod and a signed yes from the dark brown haired twin was his answer.

"Okay, little ones," Sans murmured. "I'll go get you some hot chocolate. Do you sweethearts want to come watch a movie with me?"

Chara and Frisk seemed to consider this, then nodded together. Sans smirked and, with a small flick of his hand, had turned their usually DETERMINED red SOULs a dark blue. It reminded Chara of Willow's SOUL. What was it again? INTEGRITY? That sounded right.

Sans made sure they had their blankets, their fluffiest pillows, and their favorite stuffed animals, and carefully maneuvered them out of their room and onto the couch in front of the TV.

"Sit tight, sweethearts," Sans murmured. "I'll get your drinks. You two worry about agreeing on a movie. And try to keep your Papa Skelly Bones's weak stomach in mind."

"N-non-existant s-stomach, you mean," Chara mumbled before coughing.

Sans wanted to lift them into the air and cry with happiness at their joke, but resisted the temptation. He didn't want to make anything worse; they already didn't feel good.

He contented himself with chuckling and saying, "Good one, baby bones."

He had never seen the twins' faces light up with so much joy before. As soon as he approached them with the two mugs of hot chocolate, they beamed at him with pure euphoria.

"Never thought anyone got this excited about this stuff. What's with you two?" he asked, offering them their respective mugs.

 _This was our favorite thing on the surface_ , Frisk signed.

"Well, I guess in that case you're not in too big a hurry to leave, eh?"

Chara shook their head. "Th-the Underground is w-way better!"

Sans smiled. "So, what are we watching?"

~(*)~

The twins did not recover overnight, which was either a good or a bad thing, depending on the viewpoint.

Sans enjoyed the twins' extra clingy behavior; it was nice to be so unconditionally loved and to have someone- or, two someones- to look after. They were constantly demanding some sort of attention, whether it was cuddles, a story, a snack, or a hot chocolate refill.

The bad part was it was getting worse.

The first time Chara vomited Sans screamed and ran off to find Alphys, completely forgetting that he had methods of reaching her that didn't involve sprinting at full speed through Waterfall to her lab in Hotland. Methods like teleportation, cell phones, and the Undernet.

Call it an overreaction.

Alphys could barely understand the skeleton when he burst into the lab, threw her medical bag into her arms and, seizing one of them, turned to sprint back towards his own hidden Waterfall lab, dragging her along behind him.. When they finally burst back inside together, Sans's shrieks became more clear.

"ALPHYS OH MY GOD SOMETHING CAME OUT OF CHARA BUT NOT A LITTLE SOMETHING A LOT OF SOMETHING AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS AND I'M SO WORRIED ABOUT MY BABY BONES!" He stopped to draw a deep breath, and as he did, a new thought seemed to occur to him. With an extra shriek, Sans seized Alphys's lab coat in his bony phalanges. "OH MY GOD ALPHYS ARE THEY GOING TO DIE!? TELL ME THEY'RE NOT GOING TO DIE ALPHYS I CAN'T LOSE CHARA KITTEN!"

Frisk made a panicked whimpering noise from the couch before vomiting as well.

Sans seemed on the verge of tears as he shrieked yet again. "FRISKY FOX, NO!"

Alphys sighed in relief as she understood what was wrong. She carefully pulled herself away from Sans. "Sans, they're going to be fine."

"BUT THEY-"

"Listen to me!" Alphys said forcefully, which was as close as she could get to shouting. "Sans, they just threw up. It's a normal reaction when you get sick. Their bodies are trying to get rid of the toxins so they're expelling their stomach contents."

Sans stared at her, his mouth slightly open and his expression bordering somewhere near where bewilderment, shock, and horror met. Humans were so, so weird. No, scratch that- anything with a body- fish monsters, dog monsters, humans- all of them were weird. Being a living skeleton was so much fucking _easier_.

As soon as the thought occurred to him he had to grin a bit to himself; oh, he was totally Chara and Frisk's dad.

"If they vomit," Alphys continued, and Sans guessed 'vomit' was another word for 'throw up', "you should try to let them settle their stomachs. No food for a little bit, and only things like crackers or ginger ale when they're ready to try and keep food down.

Ick, what a restrictive diet.

Sans went over to the twins while Alphys went to the kitchen to line large bowls with paper towels in case the children threw up again. Sans cleaned what vomit there was almost instantaneously with his magic; just because he was a lazybones when it came to picking up his sock collection didn't mean he'd force them to deal with messes themselves.

To make the kids feel better, Alphys offered to watch a few episodes of _Gosick_ with them before she left to go back to her lab. She was tempted to try her claw at a joke- afterall, watching _Gosick_ while _sick_? Surely there was a fantastic pun hidden there- but she resisted the urge. She still had to worry about Sans himself.

~(*)~

Sans had to admit that, even if the twins being sick was miserable for the trio of a family, it _was_ amusing to see the reactions of Papyrus and Undyne when the children showed signs of illness.

Complaints of headaches and upset stomachs were met with concern by Papyrus, who would ask if puzzles or spaghetti would make them feel better. Undyne would fiercely fluff their pillows (meaning she fluffed them so violently they were torn open and feathers were scattered around the room to flutter onto the couch and the twins' hair and noses; this usually resulted in lots of extra sneezing which was another human thing Sans was not used to and honestly still put him on edge) and yell that she was going to make them tea. "Golden flower tea, of course! Only Asgore's favorite will do for the little nerds! Even if they are wimps!"

Something like that, anyway.

The vomiting had, perhaps, his favorite reactions.

When they'd thrown up in front of Undyne, she'd merely shaken her head in exasperation, jumped up from her place beside Sans on the couch, and emptied sleeves of saltines onto the children's blankets, shouting, "KEEP YOUR CRACKERS DOWN LIKE WARRIORS!"

When Papyrus witnessed it, Sans had been in the kitchen making the twins more hot chocolate and warming them some cinnamon buns.

"SANS!" Papyrus screamed. He looked up as his brother raced into the kitchen with him. "SANS, THE HUMANS HAVE EACH EXPELLED A VILE SMELLING AND CHUNKY LIQUID FROM THEIR MOUTHS! WHAT THE FUCK, SANS!?"

Sans wanted to cry; hearing Papyrus swear was always so funny, probably due to the rarity of such a thing, but never before had he been graced with the opportunity to hear Papyrus say _fuck_. Oh, he loved these kids so much. Giftmas was going to be splendid.

Eventually, though, the twins did recover, and Sans decided to celebrate the occasion by having a _Gosick_ marathon with Alphys, Undyne, and Papyrus, complete with the twins' favorite foods and bottomless mugs of hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream and marshmallows on top. It was a night of laughter, happiness, and love. Sans couldn't have been happier, and he knew Chara and Frisk shared his sentiment even without asking them.

~(*)~

Shear sneered and flipped up the collar of his long jacket against the bitter cold and fierce wind, glancing into the nooks and crannies of the various alleyways and shop stoops. He wouldn't have to be out here doing this if the fucking cops had just kept their noses out of his and Tansy's business. He was glad to be rid of his brats. Well, he was glad to be rid of Frisk; he missed having the compliant punching bag they'd named Chara around, but it wasn't that big a deal. At least, not before the authorities started asking too many questions. Now he had to find those pills.

It wasn't looking good. He didn't see any kids at all; let alone a pair of crybabies who barely resembled each other and were wearing those stupid oversized sweaters his mother had made for them before she died. He was still pissed off that they were so attached to those damn things. Neither of them even looked good in stripes; they made them look more overweight than they were.

He sighed. Looked like those brats really _were_ stupid. If they weren't in town, they were probably in the forest.

God, he hated nature.

Those little bitches were going to pay for this.

~(*)~

 **(AN: Man, no** ** _Him_** **reveal just yet... I'm sure it will come soon, though! In the meantime, we do have the appearance of Undyne, the story of how Chara and Frisk came to the Underground, and two new names to consider. To answer IsReallyAGuest, I'm so sorry if I made the italics confusing; I'm fairly certain I didn't use them for anything that they aren't commonly used for. I use italics for: thoughts, memories, sign language/unspoken words (and sort of translations?), emphasis, and for titles of things like anime. Which reminds me,** ** _Gosick_** **is a real anime! A pretty good one, too. As for at the end, that was sort of a mix of memory and emphasis; Sans was remembering how Chara said they had to tell him about** ** _Him_** ** _Him_** **gets italicized because when referring to** ** _Him_** **as if that's his name, it gets emphasized. Oh, and during a memory, everything that would normally be italicized is left alone so you can tell it's sign language or whatever else.**

 **Also! Exciting news! We got a cover image for the story done by a friend of mine who's a fan of this story! They write on Wattpad under the name WordMaster737 and their story there is Something in the Shadows, a Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons fic (and that fandom has a mouthful of a name and someone should help me think of something better to give them). Please feel free to check it out if you are interested!**

 **Finally, I'm going to make two tumblr blogs for** ** _Sans Souls_** **\- one. sans-souls-official, for people to ask questions and for me to play around with AU ideas, like an Underfell version of this story (geez, can you imagine?) and one, sans-souls-fanfiction-official, where I'll be reposting the story once I finish it here; it will get chapters as I add them to ArchiveOfOurOwn. Meanwhile, FanFiction gets this story first, just because I love you guys the most. So if you have any non-spoiler questions to ask, please feel free to visit the tumblr blog! Thank you all so much for reading, and please review if it's not too much trouble! Thank you very much! Chapter Five should be here soon!)**


	5. Chapter 5

Chara looked from Sans and Frisk to the door and back again. For months they had felt no desire to leave, but then, shortly after recovering from being sick, the temptation set in. Of course, they'd said nothing to Sans- he hadn't once so much as yelled at them, and Chara didn't have any intention of changing that now. But still, they wanted to see what was outside.

Sans had told them his lab was in an area of the Underground called Waterfall. It explained the sounds of rushing water Chara could hear when someone visited, and the nice smell of water. They liked the damp smell. They loved the pale, dark blue and purply colors. They loved the sparkling things in the walls and the blue flower they could see outside.

It was an impulsive move and one they might regret, but Sans and Frisk were sleeping and Waterfall was just outside and they wouldn't stray _too_ far….

 _I promise I won't go too far_ , Chara thought. Sure, it was a silent promise, but it was one they fully intended to keep.

Squaring their shoulders and finding their resolve, Chara opened the door and walked outside into Waterfall.

It was beautiful. The lab opened to a small area with a bench and a blue flower. Chara noticed something underneath the bench.

What was this? It looked like food but Chara wasn't sure what it was. Maybe a pie? They bent down to pick it up. A familiar black box with white lettering appeared before them.

 _There's a lone quiche sitting underneath this bench. Will you take it?_

Chara reached out to press the _Take it_ button.

 _You got the Abandoned Quiche._

Chara quickly opened their inventory to examine the item.

 _A psychologically damaged spinach egg pie_ , the information box explained.

Chara stood and looked over at the blue flower beside the bench. They bent down next to it, intending to smell it, but-

"I wasn't ready for the responsibility," the flower whispered sadly.

This was amazing! But…. that voice sounded familiar. Auntie Alphys, maybe? Did this flower echo what people said? Chara wanted desperately to try it, but resisted the urge; of that theory was correct, they didn't want to leave any trace of their indiscretion.

Just then they heard soft cries. "Help! Help!"

The light-haired brunette walked out on the nearby bridge to listen to the cries more closely.

"Help me! Somebody help me!"

Chara tried to force their body back to the lab. They should go back; it would be dangerous to be seen by anyone, but… whoever that was out there, they were scared and in danger. Chara couldn't leave them alone.

They hoped they weren't about to make a decision that was going to get them killed, but…. Well, if this cost them their SOUL, hopefully Sans would be able to hide Frisk, and escape any punishment if it was a possibility.

Chara saw what was wrong as soon as they finished crossing the bridge.

A young, white-furred goat monster seemed to have slipped into the water, which seemed very deep, and couldn't get a good hold to climb back onto the bank. Each time his claws grasped at it, the soft, waterlogged earth crumbled away, leaving him without a purchase.

"Please help me!" He cried out, still desperately clawing at the bank. "Please!"

"I'm coming!" Chara called to him, running over and bending down to grab the goat monster under his armpits and dragging him to the bank. He was heavier than he looked; Chara was amazed they'd managed to pull him out of the water at all.

"Thank you!" The monster gasped, trying to catch his breath. "I was playing with the bridge seeds and I fell in by mistake! It's lucky you were here or I would have drowned!"

"'Bridge seeds'?" Chara repeated, confused.

"Yeah," the monster replied, panting. "What, don't you know about bridge seeds?" He pointed to a sign nearby. Chara stared at it blankly. It was written in the same funny symbols Papa used when he was doing lab work. Chara didn't know how to read this alphabet. "Oh… um, right."

They turned to look at the goat monster, and his eyes widened.

"Wait a minute! Wow! Are you a real live human?"

Chara thought their heart might have stopped.

"Wow! I can't believe I'm meeting a human! And you're a kid like me! See?" He tugged at his sweater sleeve. "Stripes!"

Was that how monsters identified their young as children? Weird.

"Can we be friends?" The monster asked, clasping his hands together as if begging. "Pleeeeaaaase?"

"You…. you don't want to take my SOUL?" Chara asked, confused. "You don't want to go to the surface?"

The goat monster looked surprised. "Why would I wanna take your SOUL? If I did that, you'd die and we couldn't be friends! I can't play tag with a SOUL."

Chara smiled a bit. "I'm Chara," they said, holding out their hand to shake.

The goat monster clasped their hand in his furry, clawed paw.

"I'm Asriel."

~(*)~

Chara and Asriel spent the next few hours playing together. In between their games, they'd question each other.

"Wait, humans can't use magic?" Asriel asked incredulously.

"I don't think so."

"Man, how do you do _anything_ on the surface? I don't know what my dad would do without fire magic!"

"Can you use fire magic?"

"Sure!" Asriel puffed his chest out proudly, then seemed to think about it and shrank back a bit. "I mean, sort of. I'm not very good yet. But when I get older, watch out!"

"Prove it!" Chara challenged, though their voice was playful. "Make some fire!"

Asriel stared at them before squaring his shoulders. "Alright! Here goes!" He held up his left paw and squeezed his eyes shut. Chara noted he was even gritting his teeth. Then-

"There!" Asriel panted proudly. A small spark of flame was nestled in his palm. It almost reminded Chara of the flame on the end of a matchstick.

"Yeah," they said teasingly. "I don't know what you monsters would do without fire magic either!"

"Aw, come on! I said I wasn't that good yet!" Asriel puffed out his cheeks angrily, making Chara laugh.

"I take it back! Don't croak on me!"

Asriel released his breath of air, laughing. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you've spent a lot of time with Sans."

Chara immediately felt nerves of fear set in, but they tried to play it cool. "Who's that?"

"Sans? He's a skeleton. He used to be a sentry for the Royal Guard with his little brother Papyrus, but I guess he quit a few months ago from what Undyne said. Something about science. Boring, right? I think it'd be a lot more fun to watch for humans!"

"Why not take me to your mom and dad, then?" Chara asked quietly. "If sentries of the Royal Guard are supposed to watch for humans?"

"Sentries don't watch for humans to take their SOULs, silly! Although someone should probably tell them that," he added. "They were put in place by my mom and dad to find humans and protect them until they reached the castle so Mom and Dad could heal their injuries. We have six SOULs but we only have them because the humans died when they fell. Mom checks the Ruins every day for humans and the sentries are there to find any who make it out of the Ruins before she finds them."

"Oh," Chara said, surprised. "I had no idea…."

"Yeah!" Asriel smiled. "Hey, do you wanna come to the castle with me? Mom and Dad would be really happy to meet you and they'll wanna reward you for saving my life!"

Chara smiled sadly. "No, thanks, Asriel. I'd rather stay here. But if you want, you can come back sometime to play again! I'd like that."

"Well…. Alright, deal!" Asriel held out his fluffy paw to shake.

"See you in…. Three days, maybe? Mom's gonna be worried sick about me when she finds out I fell in so I'll probably be confined at home for a while…."

"Sounds good," Chara agreed. "See you then!"

Asriel turned and headed off, and Chara watched him go before heading back to the bridge and Sans's lab. It was time to go home.

~(*)~

Sans slowly blinked open his eye sockets. He felt… he felt strange….

Uh oh.

Sans sat up and gently shifted the sleeping Frisk from his chest to the couch.

He looked around wildly for Chara and was relieved to see them in the kitchen, apparently trying to get a snack.

He should have prepared for this in advance, but no, no, he decided to wait like an idiot, and now his baby bones were going to pay the price for it.

"Chara, sweetheart, come here," Sans said, shakily walking over to the counter to where they were trying to get to something in one of the cabinets.

"P-Papa?" Chara asked, their voice high with worry, and a bit of fear that he knew of their disobedience. "Are you okay?"

"Chara Kitten, come here, this is really important," Sans insisted. The small human climbed down and ran into the skeleton's arms. "Okay, honey, okay. Listen to Papa really carefully, okay?"

"O-okay," Chara mumbled nervously.

"Chara, skeletons are sometimes really scary monsters, okay? They look more like dog skeletons than human skeletons sometimes and they can't talk like you and Frisk when that happens, okay?"

"Papa,you're scaring me," Chara whimpered.

Sans pulled them into a tight hug. "Papa doesn't mean to, sweet baby bones," he assured them. "But Papa needs you to understand, okay?"

"Papa, what's wrong?"

"Chara Kitten, Papa's gonna change for a little bit, okay? He's still gonna be able to understand you but you won't understand him, and you might have to call Alphys to come take care of you, alright?"

Chara whimpered. "Papa, I don't wanna have Auntie Alphys take care of us!"

"Shh, shh, baby bones. It's gonna be okay. Papa just has a lot of magic his body needs to use, and so he's gonna have to change a bit for that to happen, okay?"

"P-promise Papa will still remember us?"

"Aw, baby bones, Papa would never forget you," Sans smiled, hoping it looked comforting despite his growing discomfort. "Now, what were you trying to get?"

Chara gestured to the popato chisps in the cabinet, and Sans quickly brought them down from the shelf with his magic and allowed Chara to snatch them out of the cloud of blue magic. "Remember, if you need anything, call Alphys."

"Wh-why not Unca Paps?"

"Uncle Paps is probably going to be dealing with the same thing as Papa, sweetheart," Sans explained with a shaky smile. "Just call Alphys."

Sans hugged Chara tightly one last time, lifting them off the ground. "Don't worry, Chara. Papa will protect you even if he can't talk to you or reach cabinets," Sans promised, bumping their head with a skeleton kiss and setting them back down.

He turned and headed to the living room to give Frisk a skeleton kiss- his sweet Frisky Fox was still sleeping, and they looked so peaceful; he couldn't bear to wake them up- before heading to his room.

~(*)~

Chara had heard a lot of hissing from Sans's room, as if the comedic skeleton were in pain, but they'd resisted the urge to go into his room and check on him. They weren't sure what they expected, but after a bit all they could hear were deep, panting breaths, as if Sans had been running a marathon. Then-

Chara gasped in surprise as a large, skeletal dog, wearing a large, familiar blue jacket with a fluffy collar and black and white basketball shorts bounded out of Papa Skelly Bones's room and skidded to a halt before them. The beast watched Chara with eyes that seemed very familiar and then quickly headbutted them with its huge skull.

"Papa?" Chara asked in amazement. This wasn't quite what they were expecting.

The skeleton dog wagged its long tail made of bones and nuzzled the human child affectionately.

Chara smiled, and wrapped their arms around the beast's neck, hugging it tightly.

"I love you, Papa."

The skeletal dog wrapped one of its long forelegs around Chara in a gesture reminiscent of a hug.

~(*)~

Frisk awoke slowly, but once they were fully conscious, they realized something was on their chest. They turned their head to look at what it was.

Their eyes opened wide, staring at the skull of the huge skeletal dog resting on their tiny chest.

Its eye sockets were closed and its breathing was deep, like it was sleeping. Cautiously, Frisk raised a hand to pat the skull. The dog shifted its weight slightly before opening its eye sockets to stare into Frisk's ocean blue eyes. Then the dog began beating the couch with its long, bony tail and bumped their cheek with its muzzle.

Frisk giggled in delight at the monster's affection and hugged its snout, resting their head between its eyes. The dog skeleton sighed happily and slowly lowered its head again, with soft, friendly huffs and growls.

Chara walked into the room then. "Frisk! Look at Papa!"

Frisk stared at their sibling, shocked, before turning back to the dog-like skeleton monster. " _This_ is Papa?" Frisk asked aloud.

The dog monster beat the couch with its tail again while Chara nodded. "Yeah! See his coat?"

Frisk caught sight of the familiar white fluff that surrounded the collar of the coat's hood.

"Papa, you look really different!" Frisk told the dog monster.

It huffed, almost like it was laughing, before gently nudging Frisk's hands and turning its great head to look at Chara, almost expectantly.

"Oh! Right. Frisk, before he changed Papa said he would still be able to understand us but he wouldn't be able to talk. I think that means sign language too."

Sans huffed in agreement, nuzzling little Frisk's soft cheeks. They giggled in response and planted a kiss on the dog monster's skull.

~(*)~

The most uncomfortable thing about Sans' Blaster self was easily the transformation. Not painful, but uncomfortable; like all his pieces were being rearranged from the inside out. Whenever he tried to describe it it sounded painful, but really it just felt weird and disconcerting.

Blaster forms were a skeleton's way to deplete their magic supplies when they became too much to handle. Skeletons were powerful monsters who produced a lot of magic- _a lot_. It was hard to use all that magic, and too much magic could be dangerous for a monster. The working theory was that was why skeletons had Blaster forms- it was nearly impossible for a skeleton to use enough of their magic to be safe from a potential magic overload. They would have to constantly wear themselves out with the amount of magic they used, and Sans had never heard of a skeleton that dedicated to never tolerating their Blaster form for a while.

What really sucked was the less magic a skeleton used, the more time they had to spend in Blaster form, for obvious reasons. All the skeletons in the Underground were probably currently readjusting to life as a Blaster skeleton, but all of them would likely be back to normal far more quickly than Sans. He didn't use nearly enough magic, even with the kids, to be free of this form within a few days.

So far, though, his first Blaster transformation with Chara and Frisk was going well. Sans could still use most magic as a Blaster skeleton, so retrieving food- at least, food that didn't require the delicate art of cooking which was effectively lost to him as a Blaster- was easy. Other easy tasks included, but were not limited to, letting his kids ride on his back around the lab as if he were their great, noble steed- Princev Chara, having rescued Princev Frisk, clearly needed a noble steed to carry their sibling off into the sunset on-, and snuggling with them on the couch.

The twins had made a fort out of extra pillows and blankets lying around the lab, and stubbornly refused to sleep in their own beds for the time being. They preferred the fort, snuggled in blankets and pillows with Sans' great skull between them, nestled in his forepaws like a dog might cuddle a beloved toy.

It was great for Sans. Even while burning off magic he got to be a lazy bag of bones with his baby bones. Seemed perfect to him.

~(*)~

A few days had passed, and Sans was still in his Blaster form. He was spending a lot of his time sleeping, mostly because when he was awake, the hyperactive twins were eager to play with him. In fact, it wasn't just the twins. Even Snowy wanted to play, constantly trying to get the huge skeletal dog that was Sans to wrestle with him. The play fights usually ended fairly quickly; Snowy would run up to Sans and press his little paws against one of Sans's forelegs. The skeleton would roll onto his back, whining as if in defeat, while Snowy jumped on top of Sans's ribcage and licked his skull affectionately in-between soft barks of victory.

Because of the extra sleeping Sans was doing, Chara and Frisk were forced to entertain themselves more. That meant more games of Hide and Seek, The Floor is Lava, and the current favorite, Tag, which was what they were currently playing.

Chara was It, and chasing after their sly, swift sibling. Frisk wasn't just fast, they were also agile, and they were certainly giving Chara a run for their gold. Every time Chara started to get close to their sibling, they slid under a chair or made a quick turn around a corner.

"Where did you learn gymnastics!?" Chara protested as Frisk did a flip onto the coffee table. Frisk just laughed and raced across the table, front-flipping off of it and landing on their feet, running off before Chara even had a prayer of snatching at their baggy sweater.

Frisk giggled as their sibling ran around the table after them and ducked into the main living room, racing past the couch where Blaster Sans was currently sleeping in the fort they had built, and sprinting in the direction of Sans's lab.

Chara ran after them, not really paying attention to the direction Frisk was headed, too focused on catching them and getting their chance to be chased instead. They'd earned it at this point; Frisk had been running them ragged for fifteen minutes. The red-eyed child put on a burst of speed as they rounded the corner into the lab, DETERMINED to catch Frisk this time.

"I've got you now!" Chara yelled, reaching for Frisk's sweater sleeve. Frisk's blue eyes widened with surprise and in their haste to escape their sibling's grasp, they slammed into one of the tables.

Chemicals of every color in glass vials, beakers, and tubes came tumbling down from the tabletop above them, the glass shattering when it hit the floor, and Frisk howled as they were drenched in a clear liquid. The liquid burned and made Frisk scream in pain.

Chara skidded to a halt before their sibling, shocked. Frisk was surrounded by broken glass and strange chemicals, clearly in need of help, but Chara didn't know what to do.

At the sound of Frisk's voice, Sans had racing into the room. His larger body made the floors shake as he bounded to the twins, and his eye sockets widened and his jawbone dropped as he caught sight of his precious Frisky Fox and their predicament. Sans whined, using his paws to clear a path through the glass to Frisk and inspecting the broken bottle that had fallen on them. Whining nervously, he gently lifted Frisk up by the collar of their sweater, the way a mother cat might carry her kitten by its scruff. Then he turned and, very carefully, began using his tail to clear a path through the glass and out of the lab for Chara.

Once they were out of the lab, Sans gently set Frisk down on the floor of the kitchen. The liquid was starting to leave holes in their beloved sweater and it continued to burn their skin, making them cry and cling to the skeleton monster. Sans wrapped a comforting foreleg around his crying child and turned to see where Chara was. They were standing at the entrance to the kitchen, their red eyes wide with fear and filling with tears quickly. Sans gave Frisk a gentle nudge and unraveled himself from their embrace to walk over to their twin. He gently headbutted their chest and nuzzled them comfortingly before looking around for his blasted cellphone. It was sitting on one of the kitchen counters now; probably moved by Chara at some point for easier access. His eye lit up with blue magic and he lifted it up off the counter, trying to drop it in Chara's hands, but they jumped back, their eyes widening more and their SOUL appearing, pounding in fear just as their heart was.

Chara shook their head slowly, as if pleading with Sans for another option, before seeming to realize something.

Sans's eye sockets widened in horror as Chara turned and ran off, heading for the door leading into Waterfall. He tried to catch them before they could wrench it open, but just as he almost did, Frisk howled with pain again, and he forced himself to go back to the human child who needed him the most.

~(*)~

Chara raced past the bridge and the flowers that lead to the mainland. A familiar figure was just appearing, looking around. Asriel caught sight of Chara and raised a paw in greeting, just as Chara barrelled into him.

"Wh-whoa!" Asriel yelped as he tumbled to the ground.

"Asriel," Chara said urgently, "did you mean what you said when we met?"

The goat monster looked confused. "Sorry, which thing do you mean?"

"About your parents," Chara said impatiently. "About them not wanting to hurt humans! About them wanting to heal them!"

"Oh! That thing! Yeah, of course I did, Chara." Asriel sat up, rubbing his head where Chara had run into him. "Why do you ask?"

"Can they heal? Like, heal fast?"

"Yeah! They can both do healing magic. Why do you ask? Chara, I'm confused."  
"I need your mom and dad to come heal my twin."

~(*)~

Chara followed close behind Asriel as he sprinted through the Underground. The worst spot was easily Hotland; too warm and bright for Chara's tastes. Asriel held Chara's hand all the way through the Underground and stopped before a small gray house.

Chara panted for a bit, then felt like their heart might stop.

 _They were really doing this._

 _Oh, fuck, they were really doing this._

Sans was going to kill them if the King and Queen didn't beat him to it.

"You okay?" Asriel asked, and Chara heard genuine concern in his voice. "I promise it's gonna be okay, Chara."

Chara nodded slowly, taking a breath. "Yeah. I'm ready." They squeezed Asriel's paw for comfort and he squeezed back, giving them a reassuring smile.

Asriel turned and opened the door to the little house. "Mom! Dad! I have a friend I need you to meet and they need help!"

"What?" Chara shuddered as a figure they recognized appeared. A goat woman with small horns wearing purple and white robes. "Who is it, my child?" She caught sight of Chara, who looked away quickly.

"Mom, this is Chara," Asriel explained, quickly hooking arms with Chara. "They're a human and they really need your help! And Dad's too."

"Oh!" The goat monster blinked in shock, then smiled, seeming to sense Chara's distress. "Greetings, my child. I am Toriel, Queen of the Underground. How can I assist you?"

"I…. My t-twin is hurt…. A-Asriel s-says you and his dad c-can heal…?" They trailed off, completely unsure of their request.

"But of course, my dear child," Toriel agreed. "I shall call Asgore and we will set out for the Ruins immediately."

"The...Ruins?" Chara asked, confused.

"Mom, Chara and their twin didn't just fall," Asriel explained. "I met Chara a little while ago. They were the one that rescued me when I fell into the water in Waterfall."

"Th-that's where we live," Chara mumbled, feeling uncomfortable.

"Oh," Toriel said, her amber eyes widening in surprise. "Well, then we shall go to Waterfall, my child." She ruffled Chara's hair gently.

"C-can we h-hurry?" Chara asked, their voice getting higher due to stress. "I-it's r-really bad!"

Toriel nodded and disappeared around a corner, calling, "Asgore! We need to go to Waterfall!"

"Wait a minute." Chara turned to the goat monster standing beside them. "Your dad's name is Asgore, and your mom is Toriel?"

Asriel looked confused. "So you're As, for Asgore, and riel, for Toriel."

Asriel understood and grinned sheepishly.

"My dad named me."

As soon as he spoke Toriel returned, another goat monster following behind her.

"Howdy! My name is Asgore. It is a pleasure to meet you, human."

"Dad, this is Chara," Asriel said quickly. "We need to go to Waterfall to help their twin; they're hurt."

"In that case, we must be off at once," Asgore said, gently wrapping his paws around Chara and lifting them onto his shoulders to cling to one of his horns. Then he gently picked up Asriel and put him on his shoulders as well. Asriel shifted to cling to Asgore's left horn, so Chara wrapped their arms around the right.

Once the two were securely situated, Asgore turned, and lead Toriel out of the small gray house to head for Waterfall.

~(*)~

Sans carefully poured more water from a bucket he held magically suspended over Frisk onto them. He was distressed to see the burns on his sweet Frisky Fox's skin. He wanted to make everything better, but he had never been good at healing magic- if he was, he would have healed the injuries Frisk and Chara had on their bodies the day he found them.

Now little Frisk was curled up against his ribcage, crying as Sans tried to make everything better. He gently pressed the muzzle of his skull against their cheek, letting another bucket of water fall onto their small body. The hydrochloric acid was causing them a lot of pain and he didn't blame them for crying. He tried to think of some way to comfort them, but nothing occurred to him besides continuing to nuzzle them and trying to rinse the acid off their body, which wasn't proving to be an easy task. The flask of acid had been a large one, and it had completely soaked them.

 _I'm sorry, Frisk. I'm so sorry. It's my fault you're hurting and I can't fix it._

Frisk lifted their arms to wrap them around Sans's neck. He gently hugged them with his foreleg, still dumping bucketfuls of water onto their body.

He watched some water that splashed onto his skull roll down his muzzle. How infuriating that something this awful had happened when he was completely useless to do anything delicate.

He heard the door opening and raised his head, pausing in his cleaning of Frisk's little body. He gently nosed them off him, letting them curl up in a ball on the floor. He walked to the kitchen entrance to watch the door, wondering if Chara was finally returning with Alphys, though he didn't understand why they hadn't just called her.

Then the door swung open, and Sans, feeling a rush of petrifying fear, bared his teeth in a snarl. Standing in the doorway with Chara on his shoulder was Asgore, with Toriel right behind him.

The magic in his eye was essentially a blue flame now.

"Sans!" Toriel said, shocked.

"Papa!" Chara called, reaching for him with one arm, the other clinging to Asgore's huge horn so they didn't fall off his shoulder. Sans roared angrily at Asgore and with his magic seized Chara by their SOUL. The child soared over to him and Sans reared up to catch their sweater collar in his jaws before turning to dash into the kitchen. He set Chara beside Frisk and stood over them protectively, a long, unbroken growl rising in his nonexistent throat.

Asgore and Toriel appeared in the kitchen then. Asriel was no longer clinging to his father's horn, instead he was peering around Toriel's robes.

"Sans," Asgore murmured, his voice patient, "we are here to help. Your twins are in no danger."

Sans made a noise somewhere between a disbelieving huff and a laugh.

"Sans, I am telling you the truth," Asgore insisted. "These children have done nothing wrong. They are safe in my and Toriel's paws."

"Papa?" Chara murmured from behind him, and Sans swung his great head to look at them. "P-Papa, A-Asriel is m-my friend, a-and T-Toriel and Asgore n-never tried to hurt me…."

Sans gazed at Chara, and sighed. He glanced back at the King and Queen of Monsters, and, against all his fatherly instincts and better judgement, stood aside, allowing the two goat monsters to approach Frisk.

Toriel lifted Frisk into her arms and the child whimpered with pain as she did so; these burns hurt so badly.

"Sans, these are chemical burns, are they not?" Toriel asked.

He nodded once, watching her suspiciously for any sign that she was going to turn on his children and cause them harm.

"Do you know which chemical?" Asgore asked.

Sans nodded again, more slowly. This felt like it could be a trap.

"Can you show us?"

Sans narrowed his eye sockets, but moved to head towards the lab to retrieve the flask of acid. Or, at least, what was left of it.

Once he arrived, he nosed through the broken glass until he found the label. He gently grasped it in his teeth and turned to head back into the kitchen, and was surprised to see Asriel standing in the doorway, looking nervous. Sans cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"U-um... s-so, y-you're Chara's papa?" Asriel asked.

Sans dipped his head in confirmation.

"Chara… Chara saved my life three days ago," Asriel told him, and Sans's eye sockets widened in surprise. Chara had left the lab before?

"P-please don't be mad at them," Asriel added. "I-I told them m-my mom and dad could heal and I promised they wouldn't hurt them. And I meant it. But please don't be angry with them for trying to help Frisk. They told us on our way to Waterfall how much they mean to them. Mom and Dad would never hurt either of them."

Sans took a moment to consider that. Chara saved Asriel's life? He recalled their nervousness when he had explained his impending transformation to them. Was that because Chara had left the lab during his nap with Frisk? Had they been afraid of his reaction? He remembered the day Undyne first found out about them and he'd thrown her onto the ceiling to save the lives of his children. Had Chara feared his wrath would turn on them if he discovered their trip into Waterfall and their friendship with Asriel?

That thought made him sick to his nonexistent stomach. The idea of his precious baby bones fearing him made him want to, as Papyrus would have said, "EXPEL A VILE AND CHUNKY LIQUID FROM HIS MOUTH".  
Asriel stood aside so Sans could walk out of the lab and back to the kitchen. Asgore was currently holding Chara on his lap while Toriel inspected Frisk's burns. "Your- what was it you call him again, Chara, papa? -your papa has been doing an excellent job of caring for your injuries until I could arrive, my child."

Sans scowled a bit to himself at that; did Toriel think he would ignore his child's pain?

He beat his tail once against the floor, and Asgore looked up to take the bit of paper reading _Hydrochloric Acid_ from Sans's teeth and to hand it to his wife.

Toriel examined the scrap for a moment before nodding. "I see. Worry not, my child, I shall have you healed momentarily."

She carefully set Frisk down on their feet (they whined in protest at this) and held out her hands. Magic appeared in her palms, and the goat woman held her paws out to Frisk. The magic flowed from her palms into their body, and Sans watched with relief as their burns began to heal. He sighed in relief, and, once Toriel was done, moved to headbutt Frisk affectionately.

Frisk looked up at Toriel, and signed, _Thank you, ma'am._

Toriel looked pleased, and smiled at the child, patting their head affectionately. "You are very welcome, my child."

"Mom! Dad! Can Chara and Frisk come and play with me at home?" Asriel asked hopefully.

"It is alright with me," Asgore nodded. "As long as Sans and your mother approve."

"It is fine with me as well, my child," Toriel smiled.

Sans looked between the children; Asriel and Frisk looked full of hope, while Chara looked nervous. He nodded, and Asriel cheered, grabbing both twins around the neck in a tight hug. Chara gasped in surprise while Frisk giggled with delight.

"Would you like to come as well, Sans?" Asgore asked. The Blaster skeleton dipped his head in affirmation, and Asgore nodded, his expression understanding. "Let us depart, then."

~(*)~

Sans lay in a corner of the throne room, watching as Asriel, Chara, and Frisk play in the buttercups. The group was clearly enjoying themselves based on the amount of giggling they were doing. Sans was pleased to see that Asriel seemed to understand sign language, though on the occasions when he tried to respond to Frisk in sign, he wasn't nearly as confident in his speed. Sans smiled when Frisk gently patted Asriel's arm and signed, _It's okay, you can just talk to me. I appreciate the effort, though_.

He couldn't deny that Chara's decision, though it had sounded like a reckless idea, seemed to be having good effects. It would be good for the twins to have a friend their own age, someone to play with and socialize with. His earlier fears that King Asgore and Queen Toriel would try to steal the SOULs of his precious baby bones to escape the Underground seemed like a foolish thought.

Asgore walked over to the skeleton's spot in the corner of the throne room. "Sans. I would like to speak to you for a moment, if you will permit me."

The skeleton nodded, and Asgore continued.

"Sans, I mean no offense or disrespect, but in your current state, I know it must be difficult to care for your twins. If you would like, Toriel and I would be more than happy to allow the three of you to stay here in the castle with us. We can help you attend to the needs of the twins and they can spend some time getting to know Asriel better. I hope you do not mind, but Asriel has very few friends, and I know he would enjoy being close to your children if you will allow it."

The Blaster skeleton thought about the offer for a moment. It wasn't what he planned for and not really what he wanted, but he didn't want a repeat of the earlier incident with the acid while he was in his useless state, and Chara and Frisk were clearly enjoying their playtime with the Prince of Monsters. Sans returned his gaze to Asgore, and dipped his head once respectfully, accepting the offer. Asgore smiled.

"I will let Toriel know and begin preparing a bed for the children."

Sans watched as Asgore walked off, and turned his watchful eye sockets back on the three children playing in the yellow flowers.

~(*)~

Chara avoided Sans's gaze. They had been ever since Sans had looked at them when they insisted that Asriel was their friend and that, as far as they knew, the King and Queen were trustworthy. They were sure they had seen betrayal in his eye sockets and they couldn't bear to see it again.

Their whole body felt weak. They couldn't really enjoy their play with Frisk and Asriel, though they were pleased that the two were enjoying each others' company.

Chara sighed. They remembered the white box of a room where Blitz, Rule, Leaf, Dream, Willow, and Ink resided. They thought of the comfort the SOULs had given them, and wished desperately that they could see them again.

 _How did they say I could go back?_ Chara wondered. _I remember there was a way, but I don't remember what it was…._

"My children!" Toriel called, appearing in the throne room. "Come! It is time for your butterscotch cinnamon pie. Then it will be time for bed."

"Come on, guys!" Asriel said eagerly, tugging them to their feet. "Mom makes the best pies!"

Frisk stood quickly to follow the goat monster, though Chara got to their feet more slowly. They looked back, watching as Sans stretched and stood to follow them back to the kitchen of the little house. They quickly looked away again. Meeting their papa's gaze felt wrong.

~(*)~

The pie had been delicious as Asriel had claimed. Asgore and Toriel had looked slightly horrified when Frisk had added a few healthy dollops of ketchup to Sans's slice, and even more so when he beat the floor with his tail in thanks, pressing his skull against Frisk's small hand.

Now Chara lay beside Frisk in a spare bed in Asriel's room. They turned on their side, hiding their face from Asriel and Frisk as the goat monster told Frisk stories, mostly ones they had learned from someone called Gerson.

They felt relieved when sleep began to take over them, and they let themself slip away into the peacefulness of dreams.

~(*)~

"Chara!" cheered a familiar, rowdy female voice.

"I was starting to think you'd forgotten us," An older, teasing female voice added.

Chara blinked open their red eyes and smiled. "Hi, Blitz. Hi, Willow."

"So, you made it to the castle without _Him_ taking you there. I think that's worthy of celebration," Rule smiled warmly.

Chara looked up at him and smiled, then looked away. "Papa must be so furious with me."

"Chara, the King and Queen are rulers of KINDNESS," Leaf assured them, wrapping them in a comforting hug. "You did the right thing. Without you, Frisk would be hurt still. Maybe permanently. You did what you had to do to keep them safe."

"He's right," Ink said softly. "You had no other choice."

"Chara, you did everything right. Frisk is perfectly safe thanks to your actions." Willow's voice was gentle and kind.

"It feels like I did everything wrong," Chara murmured, rubbing their arm self consciously.

"I understand," Rule murmured. "This cannot be easy for you. But remember that Sans loves you and would never purposefully cause you harm. Even if he is upset-"

"And we don't think he is," Dream interrupted, and Chara noticed she was once again perched on Rule's shoulders; they wondered if there was a reason for it.

"As I was saying," Rule said, giving Dream's nose a gentle flick, "even if Sans is upset, you will be safe. He will cause you no harm."

"But…. But he…."

"You're remembering Undyne," Ink guessed, and Chara nodded.

"That was for your protection. Sans believed your life was in danger, and it was. He loves you and Frisk as his own children. He would never cause you pain or harm on purpose, but he will do anything to protect you. Even if it means threatening to kill his own king."

Chara thought back to the encounter with Undyne.

 _Go and tell Asgore if you want. And tell him if he tries to take either of their SOULs, I won't hesitate to dust the King of the Mountain._

Chara looked at the SOULs of the fallen children and slowly smiled. "If what you're saying is right," they began, their voice a bit nervous, "I will make you a promise."

Rule's eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, what?"

"If we're still safe when we wake up…. I promise I'll tell everyone the truth. I'll tell everyone what he did to me, and to Frisk, and to you. Especially to you."

They looked into each face: Blitz, Rule, Leaf, Dream, Willow, Ink. Each of them smiling and looking hopeful.

"I promise to do my best to make things right," Chara vowed.

~(*)~

Chara awoke and tightened their grip on what they assumed was a pillow around their arms. Then they took a moment to process it. It felt like...bones?

Chara turned around and saw Sans, free of his Blaster form and finally back to normal, his arm draped over their body. The skeleton was snoring, and Chara shifted under his arm and buried their face in his chest.

Sans snorted and looked down, hugging Chara tightly in his arms. "Oh, my sweet baby bones. I was so worried, Chara Kitten."

"Papa?"

"You've been asleep for a full week!" Sans continued, burying his skull in Chara's hair. "I don't understand why that keeps happening. Chara, do you feel okay?"

"Papa," Chara mumbled, cuddling closer to the warm jacket. "Papa, I'm sorry."

Sans drew back slightly, surprised. "Sorry? Sorry for what, Chara?"

"S-sorry for l-leaving," Chara whimpered, as tears began to fall down their cheeks. "S-sorry for b-bringing them h-home…."

"Chara, hush now," Sans urged quietly, pressing delicate, loving skeleton kisses to their hair. "Papa isn't upset with you."

"Y-you're n-not?" Chara whimpered, looking up at him, disbelieving.

"Of course not," Sans replied, his voice gentle. "Chara, you saved Asriel's life and Frisk's too. You even saved Frisk's sweater. Toriel managed to repair it, so it's just fine. If it wasn't for you, two irreplaceable lives could have been lost forever." He pulled them closer, pressing his teeth to their hair in a mock skeleton kiss once again. "Papa is not upset with you. Papa couldn't be more proud of you for what you did."

The skeleton paused, then slowly shifted so he was on his back and Chara was lying on top of him. "I'm the one who should be apologizing to you, Chara Kitten."

Chara looked up at him, gazing into his eye sockets, and Sans saw confusion in the blood-red irises.

"Chara, I am so sorry for making you afraid of me," Sans said, petting their light brown hair gently. "I would never hurt you, little kitten. You are my baby bones, and I would never hurt you. I wanted so badly to tell you that you did the right thing even if I didn't trust Asgore and Toriel at first, but I couldn't. Not in my stupid Blaster form. I suppose it's good you were asleep for so long. I only changed back yesterday evening. It would have been a nightmare to try and comfort you if you'd woken up earlier."

Sans continued to pet Chara's hair thoughtfully, staring up at the ceiling. "A lot of what happened was my fault, Chara. Not yours. I knew I was going to have to change into my Blaster form soon and I ignored it. If I had taken care of things better, you and Frisk would have been much safer. I should have locked the door into the lab and put things like knives and scissors out of reach. I should have explained in detail what was going to happen and I should have made sure you were both prepared for it. All of this is on me, and none of it is on you." The usually jovial skeleton paused, then looked back into Chara's crimson eyes. "I could have killed Frisk without meaning to and you saved their life. You made a friend with someone who has few and showed him true kindness. You did what I didn't have the courage to and told the truth to help your sibling. Never, ever tell me you're sorry." Sans pressed his teeth to Chara's forehead, and then rested his own forehead against theirs. "I honestly don't know if I would have been able to do what you did, Chara. I am more proud of you than I will ever be able to express to you."

Chara just sighed, resting their head on the skeleton's chest while he hugged them close.

~(*)~

Asgore and Toriel were both relieved when Sans emerged from Asriel's room, holding Chara in his arms.

The Queen of Monsters insisted on trying to figure out why Chara had slept for seven days, but could find nothing, and Chara didn't have the strength to tell the royals the truth just yet. First they wanted to get some food and spend some time with their Papa Skelly Bones and Frisk.

Sans decided that there was only one reason left to keep Chara and Frisk a secret: _Him_. But, even still, he had been told a secret by Frisk during Chara's week long sleep: their birthday was coming, and Sans wanted to celebrate with his baby bones, and for them to celebrate with friends and other family.

So, the skeleton began arranging a party, one that he was sure Chara and Frisk would love. And, now that Chara and Frisk were only meant to be kept secret from one individual, Sans prepared a special, vague invitation for one very important guest in between working on the gifts he had planned for his Chara Kitten and his Frisky Fox.

~(*)~

Shear snarled as he fought through the thick underbrush. Climbing this damn mountain was hard enough without all these brambles and other obstacles getting in his way. He glanced behind him and scowled in irritation when he realized that the lights of the town below could no longer be seen.

Growling, he pushed forward, keeping the reminder that the police would have his and Tansy's heads if he couldn't produce the stupid little brats in time, and the reminder that he was going to make the little bitches rue the day they ran off and got him into this fucking mess.

The undergrowth became so tangled and dense that soon, Shear was throwing all his weight against it to make any progress whatsoever.

No wonder those who climbed Mount Ebott never came back.

With another great shove, Shear broke free of the undergrowth and, meeting no resistance, ran at full speed into a small cave. He tripped over a root sticking out of the ground, and, screaming in fear as he clawed for something to grab onto, Shear fell into the Underground.

~(*)~

The day of the party arrived, and Sans beamed as the guests wished Chara and Frisk a happy birthday over and over again. Alphys and Undyne sat on the couch, Undyne's arm thrown around Alphys's shoulders, making the smaller monster blush cherry red.

Asgore and Toriel were helping prepare the cakes, one each for Chara and Frisk. Asgore was decorating Chara's two-tier chocolate cake with golden flowers while Toriel added colorful frosting roses along the base of Frisk's red velvet cake.

Papyrus and Asriel were making party hats with the twins while they giggled and covered Asriel in glitter and Papyrus in stickers.

"Okay, everyone," Sans said, looking around. "My dad is gonna be here any minute, so can everyone but the twins go into the kitchen for a bit? I want to introduce them properly."

Asgore nodded, lifting the chocolate cake in his paws. "Of course, Sans."

"Do not be afraid, my dear children," Toriel murmured, hurrying over to give each twin a reassuring kiss on their hair. "Your grandfather will be delighted to meet you."

"Yeah! Knock 'im dead, kiddos!" Undyne cheered, following King Asgore, Queen Toriel, and the cakes into the kitchen, dragging Alphys behind her. The monster just gave them a shaky thumbs up, still blushing bright red.

"You have nothing to fear, humans!" Papyrus assured them, ruffling their hair. "Why, Dad is the kindest skeleton I know, and I am including myself!" Papyrus laughed heartily, gathering up the party hat supplies.

"Good luck, guys," Asriel whispered, pulling the twins into a tight, sparkling hug. "This is going to be a day you'll remember forever!" He gave them an encouraging grin, and Sans ruffled the fur on top of his head as he scurried past him to the kitchen to join his parents and the rest of Chara and Frisk's family.

There was a soft knock at the door, and Sans patted the twins' heads encouragingly. "Everything is going to be okay. Trust your old Papa Skelly Bones." He bent to give them each a quick skeleton kiss on the cheek, and then turned to answer the door.

"Dad! Nice to see ya," Sans said happily.

"It is a pleasure, my dear son," a familiar voice murmured back, and Chara and Frisk froze, both their red DETERMINED SOULs appearing and beating in terror along with their hearts.

Sans stood aside, and there he was.

 _His_ eye sockets widened in surprised horror, and as Frisk screamed in fear he raised his hand, turning Chara's SOUL blue and flinging them full force against the ceiling just as bones appeared.

Chara screamed in pain as their shoulders, arms, stomach, and legs were pierced by the attack, leaving them hanging immobilized from the ceiling.

"Subject 08," he snarled, his voice deadly. "What is my lab rat doing infesting my son's laboratory?"

A huge dog skull, much like Sans's skull in his Blaster form, appeared and shot a bolt a magic at his father, teleporting in front of him and using another attack to cut the bones on the ceiling at their bases. He caught the child in his arms and stood his ground, his eye blazing with magic, fear, anger, and sadness.

And, maybe, maybe that was a hint of betrayal. A real one, not an imagined one like Chara had seen what seemed like ages ago now.

Sans ushered Frisk behind him, placing his free hand on their head in an attempt to comfort them as W.D. Gaster recovered from his son's attack and straightened up to face him again.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I'd like to take a quick moment to extend my sincerest apologies for the lateness of this chapter. However, I'd also like to ask that in future (both with the last Chapter(s) of Sans Souls and the sequel, if you show have any interest in that) with my speed in writing. It was difficult to find the right words for the... "action-y" parts, and unfortunately, having severe depression and anxiety doesn't make it any easier to write when I get stuck, especially when I keep getting my meds switched. Currently I'm on medication that makes it nearly impossible to get out of bed in the morning. I only pushed through to finish this before bed because I got a review that...to be honest made me feel very guilty about how hard it was for me to finish, so if the ending seems poor in comparison...or, to be more fair, if the whole chapter does, hopefully now you understand a bit more of...you know, why. Also! There's a second Author's note at the bottom of the chapter to explain a few things, such as _why_ Chara has slept for so long each time they've fallen asleep to talk to the Human SOULs.**

" _You_ ," Sans hissed, fury rising in him as he cradled Chara's broken, bloodied body to his chest. "You're _Him_?"

Sans couldn't believe this. He didn't want to believe this.

Surely this wasn't right. How could Gaster, his father who tucked him in every night with words of love and a bedtime story, who gave him nice cream even when dinner was only in fifteen minutes, who put up with his bad jokes even when he was exhausted from his work as the Royal Scientist, have done all those terrible things that still plagued Frisk and Chara's nightmares?

And yet, how could he not believe it when his sweet, loving Chara Kitten had just been attacked by him?

"I can't believe this," Sans spat at Gaster, anger rising in him. "I can't believe this! What did you do to my children!?"

Gaster stepped back, a mirthless chuckle rising in his throat. "Your children? All I see are humans, Sans."

Sans narrowed his eye sockets at his father. "They have done nothing. They don't deserve all the hell you put them through. They never did."

Gaster waved an airy hand. "For the good of the Underground, and for the good of science, they could stomach a little pain."

"A LITTLE PAIN!?" Sans screamed, any pretense of calm gone. "WHEN I FOUND THEM NEARLY HALF FROZEN IN THE SNOW, THEY WERE COVERED IN CUTS AND BURNS THAT DIDN'T HEAL FOR WEEKS!"

"It was just a few experiments," Gaster replied dismissively.

"YOU PERFORMED FUCKING EXPERIMENTS ON CHILDREN!?"

"It was for the greater good," Gaster said coldly, glaring at his son.

"THEY WERE SIX YEARS OLD!" Sans shot back.

"They weren't supposed to live long enough for it to make that bad of an impact on them."

Sans felt frozen to the spot. He stared down at Chara, whimpering in his arms, and Frisk, still hiding behind his legs.

 _Weren't supposed to live that long-_

"You…." Sans looked back up at Gaster, eye blazing. "You are not telling me you planned to kill my fucking kids. You are not."

Gaster said nothing, and Sans was suddenly shaking with fury.

"Oh my god," he spat. "What the fuck is wrong with you, Dad!?"

Gaster glared at Sans, annoyed by his son's insolence. "What does it matter to you?"

"What do you mean, 'what does it matter to me'!?" Sans growled. "I told you, they're my kids! I adopted them when I found them lying in the snow, hiding from you!"

Sans choked back a sob then. "All this time, I thought it was another monster. I never considered it could be you. I never thought in my darkest nightmares that it could be you. I never considered that you could be the reason that my children woke up in the middle of the night screaming, or that you were the reason there are days where they flinch at my touch. And do you know what almost hurts more than that? They still trust me and love me. They still believe me when I promise that they will be _safe_ , like I did before you showed up and threw my child into the wall and shoved bones through their body!"

Sans felt tears pricking at his eye sockets. "They're still going to trust me even after that. Even after how wrong I was about you."

Gaster began to laugh. "My my, how thoroughly you've been wrapped around their little fingers!" He mused. "How easy it must have been for them to slither their way into your heart and turn your loyalty to them. Who taught you to be so weak when it came to your enemies?"

"No one," Sans growled back. "But you taught me to show love and mercy to those who needed it."

Gaster glared at his son and gritted his teeth. "Don't give me that. They are _humans_ , Sans. They are the reason we are here."

"So why save the other six?!" Sans demanded, though he suspected he knew the answer already.

Gaster approached his son, eye sockets narrowed and mouth curved in a terrifying evil smile.

" _Who says I did_?"

Sans felt sick. He remembered the occasions after the monsters had obtained each SOUL. He especially remembered the first occasion.

She had been a tiny thing, younger than Chara and Frisk.

Asgore and Toriel had decided there should be a mourning period for her, and the monsters had been allowed to come to the castle and pay their respects to the young human who lost her life, but left her SOUL behind to help the monsters one day break free of their prison.

Sans had gone, and he remembered how heartbroken he had felt, looking at such a small, delicate human lying in a coffin.

"How could you?" Sans hissed. "That first human- she couldn't have been more than five! How could you?"

"I didn't realize I'd raised someone who cared more for his enemies' lives than his brother's freedom," Gaster replied coldly, ignoring the question.

"WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO THOSE KINDS OF THINGS TO PAPYRUS WHEN HE WAS FIVE!?"

Gaster's air of amusement vanished. "Don't you ever accuse me of being capable of harming my own children."

"You already did," Sans whispered, clutching Chara closer to his chest. "You willingly murdered innocent children and tortured my kids. You've hurt me more thoroughly than if you attacked me at full force."

"Stop acting so high and mighty! It doesn't become you!" Gaster growled. "You act as though I have caused the entire Underground pain when it is thanks to me they shall be freed from this prison!"

"You _have_ caused the entire Underground pain," a deep voice disagreed, and Asgore stepped out of the kitchen, his expression pained but calm.

Gaster's eye sockets widened. "Y-your Majesty!"

"Because of you, Gaster, the entire Underground has blood on their hands. Thanks to your actions, we seek to free ourselves at the cost of childrens' lives, and worse, at the cost of their suffering."

The king paused, looking away, as if contemplating something.

"How long did you keep each of them?"

Gaster's jaw set. "A few weeks."

"I want numbers, Gaster. And the truth."

"Doctor Gaster," the skeleton snapped. "And I don't remember. It was a long time ago. It's not important."

Not entirely true. He remembered.

 _Subject 01, 3 months and 6 ½ days. Received SOUL: Cyan. Female, Approx. 4 years of age._

 _Subject 02, 2 months and 24 days. Received SOUL: Yellow. Male, Approx. 12 years of age._

 _Subject 03, 1 month and 13 days. Received SOUL: Green. Male, Approx. 8 years of age._

 _Subject 04: 12 days. Received SOUL: Blue. Female, Approx. 11 years of age._

 _Subject 05: 2 months and 4 days. Received SOUL: Purple. Male, Approx. 9 years of age._

 _Subject 06: 26 days. Received SOUL: Orange. Female, Approx. 8 years of age._

 _Subject 07: 5 months and 16 days. Escaped. Female, Approx. 6 years of age._

 _Subject 08: 5 months and 16 days. Escaped. Female, Approx. 6 years of age._

Sans growled angrily and passed Chara, still bleeding with bones jutting out of their small body, to Asgore. "You're lying!"

"Prove it!" Gaster roared, gritting his teeth.

Sans raised his hand, summoning not one, or two, but _sixty_ Gaster Blasters. If he hadn't been so livid, he might have made a pun.

Blaster after blaster attacked the older skeleton, and despite Gaster's best attempts to dodge them all, some did in fact manage to hit him. Sans Checked Gaster.

 _W.D. Gaster 65 ATK 55 DEF_

 _Your father can feel his sins crawling on his back._

Gaster raised his own hand, and more hands appeared.

 _DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?_ The hands signed, before Gaster's own Gaster Blaster appeared.

Asgore quickly picked up Frisk in his arms and fled back to the kitchen with the two human children just as Gaster unleashed his attack on his son. Frisk burst into terrified tears and reached desperately for Sans as Asgore took them away.

Toriel took Chara in her arms as Asgore reached the kitchen doorway to remove the bone attack from their body and heal their injuries, Asriel following close on her heels and crying at the sight of his friend in such pain.

"Tell me what you did to those kids!" Sans yelled as Gaster's SOUL flashed blue and he was sent flying into a wall.

"What do you care?! My scientific experiments are none of your concern!" Gaster snapped back.

Sans was so angry he could barely hear the sounds of their themes- _Megalovania_ for him, _Dark, Darker, Yet Darker_ for Gaster, battling it out in their own way.

~(*)~

In the kitchen, Chara whimpered as Toriel shakily healed their injuries. She looked scared.

"Chara? Are you okay, Chara?" Asriel had one paw resting gently on their shoulder and his eyes were flooded with worried tears.

"P-Papa…?" Chara asked, sitting up in Toriel's arms.

"He's…. He's not here right now, Chara," Asgore said gently, placing a comforting paw on their back. "But it's going to be okay-"

"I was studying DETERMINATION!" Gaster's voice roared from the living room.

Chara froze. Their blood red eyes hardened with cold fury and hatred.

They raised their hand as they wrenched themself free of Asgore and Toriel's grips and raced to the front room for the voice.

~(*)~

A small blur shot past Sans, followed by several other smaller blurs. The skeleton felt his SOUL turn cold when he realized Chara was launching themself full force at Gaster.

Gaster however looked...frightened?

Then Sans noticed something else strange. Humans weren't supposed to be able to use magic, but...there were knives floating around Chara's body.

Suddenly he felt like something had clicked. Like he understood… and like he was going to be sick.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!"

Gaster didn't respond. He was too busy dodging Chara's swift attacks, trying not to be slashed by the knives Chara was swinging at his body.

Asgore was yelling for Chara to stop, Frisk was wailing, Undyne was cheering-

Sans saw Gaster readying a huge group of blasters to attack Chara, and threw himself to them, barely managing to drag them away before the the place they had been moments before was scorched by the terrifying skulls.

Chara thrashed and screamed as he pulled them away, and Sans gasped in pain as he felt a knife lodge itself in his left clavicle.

"You can't trust her, Sans!" Gaster laughed when he saw Sans struggling not to drop Chara. The pain in his bone made it hard to hang onto the child, still fighting to attack his father. "She's just going to kill you!"

Sans glared at Gaster, clutching Chara closer as he remembered the occasion when Frisk had calmed Chara down from a similar episode that seemed long, long ago. "Chara, you're going to be okay," he whispered in their ear, keeping one eye socket on Gaster as he murmured to them. "Papa knows he hurt you now and he'll never let him hurt you again, sweet kitten. Papa will always choose his Frisky Fox and his Chara Kitten over that SOULless killer," he added, his voice turning fierce as he spoke. He could feel Chara's fight leaving them.

Gaster looked shocked. "How did you-"

"Papa!" Chara wailed, clinging to him. The extra knives were still floating lazily around them. "Papa, I'm sorry, Papa!"

"Hush, sweet one," Sans replied, rocking the sobbing child. "Papa isn't upset with you. Papa understands, I promise, kitten. Try to calm down."

"I hurt Papa!" Chara wailed, and Sans laughed.

"What, you think that's enough to hurt me?" He chuckled. "Not even close, baby bones."

He pressed his teeth to their hair. "Please don't cry."

"Chara," Asgore said softly, staring at the knives drifting around their body, "how are you doing this, child?"

Chara looked to the knives then, seemingly surprised. They moved a hand experimentally. The closest knife moved with the movement, and Chara flung their arm out towards Gaster. He clearly wasn't prepared for it, as it tore through his cloak's right side and he doubled over in pain.

"Chara!" Asgore yelled, shocked.

"Don't kill him," Sans interrupted.

Chara looked up at him then. "But he killed them," they whimpered. "He killed Blitz and Rule and Leaf and Dream and Willow and Ink."

"Chara, are you talking about the Fallen Humans?" Toriel asked.

Chara nodded.

"How do you know their names, baby bones?" Sans asked. "Did you all fall at the same time?"

Chara shook their head. "Uh uh."

Well, that didn't make much sense anyway- the first SOUL had fallen many, many years ago.

"Then how?"

"They talked to me," Chara mumbled, looking away suddenly. "That… That first time his… experiment… activated, they talked to me, and again after Frisk got hurt, 'cause I was scared and wanted to talk to big brother Rule and big sister Willow."

Sans felt a fond smile spreading across his skull. "Big brother and big sister, eh?"

"They make me feel better," Chara mumbled. "They said they'd bring me to talk to them whenever I needed them."

Sans smiled fondly down at the child as they explained. So all that time they'd been sleeping for so long, they'd been with the Fallen Humans- they'd been with another family, so to speak. He felt a rush of relief that this mystery was explained. His baby bones wasn't ill or injured as he had secretly feared.

Gaster scoffed and Sans looked up, his eye blazing.

"S0, your precious little human has lost her mind, eh?"

"First of all," Sans said loudly, anger clear in his voice, "Chara and Frisk are not her, or she, they are they. Secondly, I want you to tell me what you did to my child."

Chara flinched at San's cold tone. The skeleton raised his hand, seizing his father's SOUL with blue magic and pinning the older skeleton to the wall. "Chara is a _human_. They shouldn't be able to use magic," the small skeleton hissed.

Gaster gasped as if Sans was pinning him to the wall by his nonexistent throat. "I-! Ghhk!"

"Sans," Asgore murmured, looking concerned, "You must be careful. You could hurt your father more than you intend to."

" _He_ -" Sans began, his eye sparking and his voice barely containing his fury.

"I know," The king replied, placing a paw on the skeleton's shoulder. "But you must not hurt your father. I know he has hurt you, but killing him will not bring back the fallen humans. Nor will it change what has happened to your children."

Sans held back a snarl with difficulty. His children had been tortured by this skeleton. Chara could use magic. Frisk still had nights where they woke up screaming.

Reluctantly, he loosened his grip on Gaster's soul, and the older skeleton gasped in relief.

"Tell him what he wants to hear, Gaster," Asgore ordered. "Explain why Chara, a human child, can use magic."

Gaster gritted his teeth, clearly preparing to spit out a retort, but Sans tightened his grip again before he could. Hatred and fury glinted in his eye socket like ice.

"Tell me the truth," he hissed. "Or I swear, I don't care what Asgore says or how much LOVE I gain, I will kill you now and scatter your dust across the Underground."

Gaster's eye sockets held as much fear as Sans's held loathing. Slowly, he nodded.

When the grip slightly relaxed, he gasped for air, then spoke.

"One day, while I was in the Ruins, a human child fell into the Underground. She was young and small, a weak little thing, and I ran to her side. She got up with difficulty and then asked me if I could help her." Gaster smiled a bit bitterly at this point. "And I almost did. I looked into those blue eyes and I almost helped her. I almost brought her to the castle to be healed. But then, I noticed her eyes were the same shade of blue as the ocean that I could see in my books that had fallen here. And that was that."

Sans felt a sharp pang in his SOUL, almost like a jolt of electricity. _She had almost survived? This had nearly never happened. The human children could still be alive. Chara and Frisk could have been spared._

"I told her I would heal her injuries and she let me pick her up. Then I teleported to my laboratory and strapped her down."

His expression grew bitter. "She made a lot of noise. She didn't quiet down until she was nearly gone. I remember being annoyed that she never shut up." He paused, then turned his gaze to Chara. "Almost like her."

" _Them_ ," Sans snarled, turning Chara's face away from Gaster.

Gaster shrugged to himself, then continued. "Finally she quieted down, and eventually she died. I took her SOUL and gave it to the King and Queen, and brought her body with me. I lied and said I found her on the verge of death and couldn't save her. But really," he smiled, almost wistfully, "she did do me a great service, with all those experiments."

Sans shuddered. What had Gaster done to that poor girl? When he'd looked in her coffin to mourn her and thank her for leaving them her SOUL, he'd never imagined the pain she must have endured at Gaster's hands.

~(*)~

 _Sans looked down at the child laying in the stone coffin. She was small, her skin pale like a white rose's petals and her hair a soft, light brown, like chestnuts. Her small face was frozen in an expression of fear, but what else could be expected? She had fallen a long way to her death, and it must have terrified her._

 _He felt a pang of sadness for her, wishing he had been there in her final moments to comfort her. His father was not always reassuring when it was necessary. He hoped that, for her sake, Gaster had been sympathetic. He imagined holding the girl in his arms, crooning a soft lullaby to her as her little body slowly gave in to her fall. In his vision, her expression turned from fearful to peaceful, as if she was comforted by his soft song to her.  
_ Thank you for you SOUL, little one _, he thought, reaching into the coffin and gently cupping her scared face in his bony hand._ I hope you died in some amount of peace, and I hope you're safe and happy, wherever you are.

 _He gently straightened her bright red bow on her hair, then stroked her face one final time. Too young to die so soon. He wished she hadn't been lost._

~(*)~

"I used magic to alert me when humans fell into the Underground after the first two. He almost escaped. I couldn't let that happen. We needed SOULs."

Sans thought back to the second mourning period for the second human. A boy, skin pale as snow and hair the color of his SOUL of JUSTICE. Far older than the small girl who had fallen before him and died.

Sans remembered looking into his coffin, and scanning his face. Like the girl's, he did not look peaceful in his final resting place. Something like a mixture of fear and anger was still visible on the features- though for the girl, it had only been fear.

Sans thought back, back to the moment he forced himself to turn away.

~(*)~

 _The boy's face was hard, and that look- like he was angry with the monsters for taking his SOUL, even if he was dead- was too much to bear. His cowboy hat was slightly askew on his yellow hair. Sans forced himself to look away, and caught sight of the other coffin. The small cyan heart emblazoned on it reminded him of her. Small, fragile, weak. She was a baby. She didn't deserve this._

 _He closed his eye sockets, sending a silent prayer to JUSTICE, wherever he was now._

The little girl, PATIENCE. She was lost here, like you. Wherever you are now, if you will permit me, please, find her. Protect her. Do not let her be alone and scared in her second life. No one deserves to die that way.

 _He glanced back, looking at the boy again. Did the expression seem softer? Or was he simply inventing that so he would not feel so guilty about asking a child who had died to bring him one step closer to freedom for a favor he knew he did not deserve?_

I don't ask for me, _Sans thought, feeling tears prick his eye sockets._ I don't deserve any other kindnesses from you. I ask for her. Please look after her. Children like you two should always be safe and happy.

 _Sans took a shuddering breath, and turned away at last. He hoped that he would never have to return here. He hoped that if another child fell down, they would survive. He never wanted to see another coffin in this hall._

~(*)~

Chara whined in his arms. Sans glanced down at them. Their eyes were squeezed shut, and they were burying their face in his jacket. "Rule," they mumbled, and their body shook with a small sob. "Rule. He… he never said that."

Sans hugged the child a little tighter. The fact that Rule had nearly escaped angered him, but he focused his attention back on Gaster.

"He didn't last as long," Gaster continued, and Sans had to bite back the urge to vomit up bile despite not being able to physically do so at his father's disappointed tone. Like Rule was no more than a piece of gum whose flavor had not lasted as long as he had hoped.

"I had more time to experiment on the girl. Despite her age and size, she withstood my experiments better than all of the others."

"Why did you experiment on the children at all?" Toriel asked. Her voice was quiet and calm, but when Sans glanced over at her, he saw her paws- holding firmly to Asriel's shoulders- were shaking. He quickly looked around for Frisk- he didn't want his other child anywhere near Gaster, and he wanted them close- and saw they were being held in Asgore's massive paws, cradled to his chest like a small infant.

Relieved, he returned his attention to his father. He wanted to hear this explanation.

"It was my chance to study humans!" Gaster cried, and Sans saw a small gleam in his eye sockets. Eagerness. Excitement.

"It was my chance to study DETERMINATION and its source!"

"I don't want to hear about this," Sans growled. "Tell the King and Queen about your disgusting experiments another time."

Gaster looked miffed as he returned his gaze to his son, but he didn't protest. He merely continued as though Toriel's interruption had not occured.

"Next fell another male. I didn't know if my magic would work properly, but it did, and I managed to capture him easily. I had hoped that he would last longer than the first, but like the second, he disappointed me. However, I still received a SOUL- I'm sure you know which," he added, sneering at Sans, and he nodded once. He remembered the third SOUL, KINDNESS.

~(*)~

 _The boy in the coffin was different from the other two children. Unlike PATIENCE, he was not frightened. Unlike JUSTICE, he was not angry. He merely looked...sad. As if someone had given him terrible news._

 _Sans remembered reaching into his coffin- as he had done so long ago with PATIENCE- brushing the bones of his thumb under the child's eye. He half expected to wipe tears away from the heartbroken face, but instead he merely felt the child's cold skin against his bone. His hair was dark like the night, his skin a soft fawn. Sans carefully brushed a bit of his night hair away from his face, and tried to send him a positive thought._

I hope wherever you are, you aren't so sad anymore _, he thought, giving the boy's face a gentle pat._ I hope you're with PATIENCE and JUSTICE, and you three are happy now that you're free of the pain the Underground brought you.

 _Sans looked at the boy, with his hands folded over his apron as if holding his SOUL to his chest while he slept. Was it his imagination, or did KINDNESS's face look almost sympathetic?_

~(*)~

"I remember," Gaster continued, "wondering if the first human survived so long because she was female. Could it be human females were stronger than the males, I asked myself? It seemed unlikely, but it was plausible. When the next human fell, I was delighted. An older female would surely endure far better than the small one had."

He paused, and his expression turned thoughtful. "Looking back, I may have started with too intense an experiment. This human lasted the shortest amount of time, not even two weeks."

Sans had to close his eye sockets and calm himself for a few moments. _Not even two weeks_. So the other humans lasted longer than that. From Gaster's tone, they had lasted much longer. What kinds of horrific experiments had Gaster subjected them to in the time he'd had them? What frightful thing had he done to INTEGRITY to kill her so swiftly?

 _How did Chara and Frisk manage to survive him at all?_ Sans couldn't help wondering, and he shuddered. He wanted to know that more than anything, but he wouldn't ask Gaster. He didn't want to hear about how the lab rats had escaped their master- he wanted to hear from the children how two abused, tortured baby bones had escaped a ruthless, remorseless killer. He wanted to praise them for surviving his father, rather than scream any more at the killer for what he had done. Sans hugged Chara closer. They were shaking in his arms, and he gently rested his skull on their head, trying to comfort them. He closed his eye sockets again, and INTEGRITY's mourning period rose, unbidden, in his thoughts.  
~(*)~

 _She was older than PATIENCE and KINDNESS, about JUSTICE's age, though maybe a bit younger. She was beautiful; her skin was a lovely polished mahogany. Her hair, gathered at the top of her head in a taut bun to keep her tight curls in place, was a deep ebony. Her ballet outfit was ripped and torn in places, probably from her fall. Sans looked at her muscles and wished that she had somehow managed to survive the great height when the others had not- what was the use of making your body so powerful if it would not save you in the end?_

 _The only thing to marr the beauty of her face was her expression- she looked as though she hated all monsterkind. But he could not blame her; they had, after all, taken her SOUL now that she was dead._

 _He smiled a bit wistfully at her._ I hope you're still practicing ballet where you are. I'm sure your dances were mesmerizing. _He turned away and looked at the other three coffins._

 _PATIENCE. JUSTICE. KINDNESS. And already, INTEGRITY had come to join them._

~(*)~

"I had to wait a long time for another human," Gaster recalled. "It was frustrating. I was starting to think I would never get another one." He paused, then smiled. "Just as I was about to give up, he fell. Luckily he lasted longer than his predecessor, not that I was too surprised by that. I was careful not to break him too quickly in case my hypothesis about human females being a stronger sex was true."

Sans heard Toriel's breath catch in her throat, and knew what had broken her facade of calm. The way he described his time torturing PERSEVERANCE before his death sickened him as well.

Behind him, Frisk let out a wail, and he heard Asgore try to comfort his child. He felt sickened by Gaster's words, but he needed to hear more. He had to know what his father had done to Chara to allow them to harness magic.

"I remember being saddened when he finally died," Gaster continued. "I'd perfected my experiments by then, and I learned a lot from him, but at least he wasn't as sickening as the third SOUL when he died." Gaster scoffed. "It was a bit pathetic listening to him forgive me as he gave in to a simple surgery to examine his deltoid."

Sans tried not to visibly shudder- his father performed surgeries on the humans? While they were still awake and able to tell him they forgave him for his actions? He hoped that neither Chara or Frisk had faced something so cruel, but he knew he was kidding himself based on Gaster's tone alone.

He thought to PERSEVERANCE, lying in his coffin, and felt a rush of pride for the child. He was glad KINDNESS died with love still in his heart, but he was pleased that PERSEVERANCE had never forgiven Gaster. As far as he was concerned, his father did not deserve anyone's forgiveness. Especially, it seemed, that of the human children, if he had found KINDNESS's dying declaration of forgiveness 'sickening'.

~(*)~

 _Sans felt sick returning to the hall for a fifth time. He had hoped that he would be dust long before a single other child could give their SOUL up for the monster's freedom like the small girl PATIENCE, and already four others had joined her. The break between INTEGRITY and this new death had given him hope he might never come here to see another child's body again- but it had been in vain._

 _He approached the coffin and was mildly surprised at the boy's expression. His rose marble features were completely neutral. He didn't look peaceful, like he was sleeping, exactly- it was more like he was DETERMINED to keep his face free of fear or pain. His white-blond bangs were brushing against his eyelids, and his thick glasses were perched on his nose. If not for his expression, one might assume he had forgotten to take his glasses off before falling asleep._

 _He nodded slightly to the boy, taking note of his arms wrapped protectively around the notebook on his chest. Perhaps if he had lived, he and Gaster would have gotten along- or maybe he wrote stories, and he would have been friends with Alphys._

 _Sans smiled at the child in spite of himself._ Continue your work, little one. Amaze your new world with your skills. _Surely in the afterlife he could still write, still impress. Sans hoped so. He deserved nothing less._

~(*)~

"The final SOUL I managed to collect," Gaster continued, "was a tricky one. I waited a bit for her- though not as long as I did for the previous boy- and when she fell, she was a nightmare to subdue."

Gaster's gaze darkened, and he glared suddenly at Chara. Sans clutched his child closer, shooting Gaster a venomous look as Chara whimpered, hiding their face from Gaster.

"If only she had fallen with a sister like Subject 08," he growled. "I might have gleaned more from her than I did."

Sans tried not to let the tears pricking his eye sockets win. So Gaster had kept Chara in line using Frisk, just as their parents had done before they climbed Mount Ebott.

He remembered the conversation he'd had with Chara, when they'd told him about the abuse they'd suffered at their parent's hands. They'd told him they would protect Frisk from harm by telling their parents to hurt them however they wished. He was sure Gaster must have heard that same plea from Chara many times, and he was sure Gaster had relished it each time.

He felt sick as he remembered the reason Chara had told him they had climbed the mountain.

 _They went to that awful hole to die. To be free of the pain their parents caused them. And my father tortured them instead._

"She didn't last too long either," Gaster said, looking a bit disappointed. "Longer than the fourth human, though only by a couple of weeks. I didn't even get to keep her for a full month." He sounded a bit bitter at this.

Sans couldn't help feeling pleased that she hadn't lasted that long- he remembered her face, her lip curled in a defiant smirk. Had she given in so soon just to spite his father? He wouldn't put it past the little thing.

~(*)~

 _Her fiery red hair was wild, and her cheeks were splashed with freckles. Her eyes were closed, but her mouth was curled, almost like she was giving the monsters a pleased but defiant smile._

 _Six human children had now fallen into the mountain and faced their deaths. Only one seemed to have welcomed that prospect, but he would expect nothing less from her. Even if he had not seen the blazing orange SOUL, bright as a flame, he would have guessed she was BRAVERY incarnated. Not a trace of fear touched her features- it was as if fright had never crossed this small, freckled face._

 _A bandanna was wrapped tightly around her neck, almost like a collar, and on her hands were thick gloves. Everything about her body championed her courage._

 _If she had lived, Sans suspected she would have welcomed each confrontation, smiled at each strange monster. It was truly a shame she hadn't lived- the Underground could use BRAVERY like hers._

 _In spite of himself, he smiled at her still body in the coffin._ I'm sure wherever you are, you are just as BRAVE as you were here. Just try not to be reckless in your new life, little one.

 _Her face almost looked amused; could it be that she was laughing at him from her afterlife? Teasing his prayer for her? Perhaps she was trying to tell him all courage came with some amount of recklessness, no matter your intentions, but he could not be sure._

 _Sans frowned to himself, looking at the six coffins in the hall. He would never be sure of any of their intentions, thoughts, dreams, desires, or fears. They had all been lost._

~(*)~

Gaster grinned. "I was so close. One more SOUL was all we needed. Just one." He beamed suddenly, turning his gaze back to Chara. "But I got lucky. I didn't get just one human the last time, I got _two_." He gave Chara a hungry look. "I hadn't been able to tamper with the SOULs of the first seven- they were, after all, meant to destroy the Barrier, and I couldn't risk them not being able to do their job properly. But when it came to _her_ ," he smirked at Chara, "I had no such restrictions. Her SOUL wouldn't be needed, just the other seven. So I tampered with it, to see if my hypothesis on experimentation with the human SOUL was correct."

Sans shuddered. Touching someone's SOUL was a very intimate and personal thing- and Gaster had _experimented_ on Chara's. How was his child not terrified for anyone to so much as _see_ that DETERMINED red heart?

Chara whined in his arms again and he hugged them tightly. "Chara Kitten, I'm sorry, I didn't know. It's going to be alright from now on, sweet one. He'll never hurt you again."

"I worked to make her a weapon," Gaster explained. That's why she gets so violent whenever I say the trait of her SOUL." He sneered. "She was very easy to break, I'm afraid, but she never attacked what she was meant to, do I'm afraid she was a failure after all."

Sans gritted his teeth. "Do you mean they only attacked you?" He demanded, his eye socket glinting again. "The monster who experimented on their SOUL, tore and burned their flesh?"

"She attacked her master," Gaster hissed.

" _They_ attacked a MERCILESS killer," Sans spat in reply.

"I will give her this," Gaster said, as though making a huge allowance, "she and her accursed twin lasted far longer than any of the other humans, even the first one."

Chara wailed from Sans's arms.

"Chara?" Sans asked, shocked by the child's outburst. "Chara, what is it?"

"H-he k-killed F-Frisk!" Chara sobbed, burying their face in Sans's chest. "I-I w-was b-being b-bad, so he t-tore their h-heart out of their chest!"

Sans stared at them in horror. "Chara, Frisk is fine, sweet one, look," he said gently, turning slightly so they could see their twin held in Asgore's huge paws.

But...Frisk was sobbing quietly, their eyes shut tight and one hand clutching their chest.

"H-he k-killed them s-so many t-times," Chara whimpered. "I-if I h-hadn't R-RESET, th-they-"

Sans froze. All those times he had awoken to Papyrus watching Mettaton singing that song he couldn't stand- _he'd long ago lost count of how many times that had happened._

Sans saw the confusion on Gaster's face. So he didn't remember the RESETs, as Chara called them.

"Chara," Sans murmured, trying to keep his voice calm even though his body was shaking with rage at the knowledge that Frisk had died countless times at his father's hands, "how did you escape him at all, little one? What did you do?"

"F-Frisk s-signed that he left a sc-scalpel n-nearby," Chara mumbled. "I d-didn't know how to move stuff if he w-wasn't hurting m-me or F-Frisk or y-yelling but I was scared and I w-wanted to leave s-so bad-"

"Try to calm down, darling," Sans cooed. It was so hard to try and calm Chara down when he was so furious and upset, but Chara looked like they were on the verge of a panic attack. "You're safe now. There's no need to fear."

"I….I managed to make it move," Chara whispered. "When he….when he wasn't watching us. And I cut myself free and I cut Frisk free and- and we ran." Chara looked up at Sans, blood red eyes swimming in tears. "W-we r-ran into the snow and we t-tried to g-get away and...and Papa found us."

Sans felt their grip on his jacket tighten as they buried their face into his chest. He rested his skull on their hair, and finally released Gaster, hugging Chara tightly with both arms.

"And Papa is so glad he did," he crooned, as Chara sobbed into his jacket. "Papa loves his sweet little Chara Kitten and his gentle little Frisky Fox more than anything in the world."

He stooped and gently set Chara on the ground. "And that's why," he said, his voice still gentle and calm as he released his child, who immediately clung to his tibias and fibulas, clearly terrified to no longer be in the safety of his arms with Gaster so nearby, " _Papa isn't going to let him live after what he did to you_."

Sans's voice had turned hard, cold, and full of hatred. His eye socket blazed, and Gaster screamed in pain as Sans lifted him into the air by his SOUL and slammed him into the ground.

"Sans!" Toriel and Asgore shouted together, lunging for him and trying to stop him.

"You mustn't!" Toriel pleaded, holding him around the middle while Asgore used his free paw to seize the skeleton's arm to prevent him from throwing his father again.

"Think of your children," Asgore urged him in his rumbling voice.

" _I am_!" Sans screamed. " _They'll never be safe so long as that fucking killer lives_!"

"You don't know that," Toriel gasped.

" _Yes I do_!" Sans thrashed in their arms, though he was careful not to kick out; Chara was still hugging tightly to his leg bones. " _If Chara and Frisk were too scared to tell me what he did to them when they didn't know if he would ever see them again, imagine what they're holding back now that he's here! Chara only told us those things because they felt like they had no choice! Gaster killed the other humans, he'll try to kill Frisk and Chara too_!"

The tears had won by now, and were flowing down Sans's skull in steady rivers.

He couldn't help it- his father had done such terrible things, had hurt Chara and Frisk so badly, and murdered six other human children in cold blood for the crime of being humans.

When Chara saw them, were they angry? Did they hate monsters now? He could picture PATIENCE crying, Rule snarling curses, KINDNESS closing his eyes and looking away, INTEGRITY hitting a wall, PERSEVERANCE setting his jaw, BRAVERY smiling with bloodlust glinting in her eyes. Was that their afterlife? All this time he had hoped they merely played, perhaps in a large, sunny, flat field, free of any chance to fall, cherishing each other. Instead, now he couldn't picture their second life as anything but dark and tortured. They must be haunted by their torturous final days and deaths- PATIENCE had suffered for so long, INTEGRITY had been killed in a matter of days- how could they not be cursing all monsters for Gaster's sins? How could they not wish for vengeance after what he had done?

As Sans sobbed, he went limp in Toriel and Asgore's paws. When they cautiously released him, he merely sank to the ground, gathering Chara in his arms and burying his skull in their hair.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, rocking the child in his arms. "Please believe me, Chara, my sweet kitten, I'm so, so sorry."

Gaster took the opportunity of his son's distraction and shakily got to his feet, turning quickly on his heel to open a shortcut and teleport away from his old laboratory that had become his son's.

Sans didn't even care.

~(*)~

Chara and Frisk didn't have the energy to celebrate after the chaos caused by Gaster's arrival, not that Sans could blame them. They didn't even have the energy to eat their birthday cakes or open their presents.

Sans quietly showed the guests out. No one complained, though Asriel looked worried. However, when Chara and Frisk turned to go to their room, he snatched them up into his arms, trying not to let on how terrified he was to let them out of his sight. If Gaster returned, and the twins were alone, Sans wasn't sure he'd be able to find them again before his father killed them.

Instead, he ushered them to his own room, climbed into bed with them, and held them close as the exhausted children fell into deep sleeps in his arms. At least this way if Gaster returned, Sans would be with them, ready to fight his father to the death to protect his children.

~(*)~

Gaster panted as he made his way through the Ruins. He would have to find a good place to hide for a while. If Subjects 07 and 08 were in Sans's hands, he couldn't be sure his Snowdin lab was safe to hide in. Asgore and Undyne could burst in at anytime with the whole Royal Guard to subdue him.

He muttered venomously to himself. Sure, it had been _wonderful_ to finally tell someone about his experiments, but now he was going to be hunted for his so-called _crimes_.

He glanced behind him, grumbling with annoyance as he considered his lost lab rats. He knew where they were now, but Sans would no doubt be keeping an annoyingly close eye on the brats from now on. He'd have to wait to lull Sans into a false sense of security.

A noise echoed from ahead of him, and Gaster crouched to the ground, flattening his body against the bright purple rocks of the Ruins and listened. Perhaps it was just a large Froggit or Loox- but whatever it was, it was getting closer.

~(*)~

"We should claw his SOUL out of his chest and crush it into dust," hissed Willow's voice.

"He deserves nothing less," Ink murmured.

"We're _dead_ ," Rule reminded them all in a loud voice.

Chara blinked open their eyes.

Leaf was holding them in his arms while the others stood around them. The exception was Dream; as usual, she was perched on Rule's shoulders and clutching his hair in her little hands.

"Hi, Chara!" Dream sang from her perch. She tightened her grip on Rule's hair with one hand and waved eagerly with the other.

"Hi, Dream," Chara smiled. "Nice to see you again."

"How are you, little one?" Willow asked, smoothing her expression from venomous rage to calm.

"Um…."

"Birthday party was kind of a disaster, wasn't it?" Ink said, looking up from where he was scribbling furiously in his notebook. The pen was still flying across the paper, reduced to a mere blur by Ink's speed.

"What an _understatement_ ," Blitz muttered.

"I-it was a _nightmare_ ," Chara whispered, shuddering.

Rule stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on Chara's head. "Hush," he murmured in a soothing voice, bending down to Chara's level.

Dream looked mildly annoyed; Chara guessed it was more fun to be the tallest in the room than just a bit taller than you usually were.

"He's gone, Chara. He's gone, and Sans knows about him. You and Frisk are both safe now."

"Too bad he didn't crush his bones into a fine powder," Willow muttered.

"That would have been nice," Blitz agreed. "But better if I got to do it. Imagine the look on his stupid fucking skull."

The two sighed wistfully.

"Would you two remember to take Leaf's feelings into account?" Ink snapped testily. "Ah- no- fuck," he added, pausing in his writing to glare at his notebook. "Of course I had to die with a fucking _pen_ ," he grumbled, scribbling some more.

"Misspell something again?" Willow asked, trying to look at the notebook.

"Yyyyup," Ink said, shifting so she couldn't see the paper. "Nice try."

"Worth a shot," Willow muttered, looking crestfallen.

"I don't try to dance with your ballet shoes," Ink said loudly. "I wish you'd all stop trying to read what I write in my notebook."

"Fair," Rule agreed.

"Leaf shares," Blitz complained.

"I share food, not my personal thoughts," Leaf disagreed.

"Rule should share," Blitz mumbled, sounding miffed.

"You are _not_ getting your hands on my guns," Rule said warningly, shooting her a look. "If you so much as touch one I will ground you for the rest of your afterlife."

"You aren't my dad," Blitz grumbled.

"I wish that was true," Rule muttered. "Besides," he continued in a louder voice, "you're one to talk about sharing. You threw a temper tantrum when Dream asked to try on your bandanna."

"But it's mine!" Blitz yelled, looking affronted.

"Believe me, we know," Ink sighed.

The purple SOUL balanced his notebook in his palm for a moment, rereading what he had written, before snapping it closed. "Well, now everyone knows the truth," Ink said, his voice conversational. "Do you think when they use us to open the barrier we'll finally go to a real afterlife?"

"Nah," Willow shrugged. "We'll probably just disappear."

"Fair," Ink agreed. "Gotta say, I'll miss you, Chara," he added, leaning down to ruffle their hair.

"D-don't the monsters still need one more SOUL?" Chara asked nervously.

"Yup," Rule nodded.  
"S-so why are you a-acting like you're going to be gone soon?"

"Eh, it's not important," Ink said. "Forget I said anything. Let's play a game or something, eh?"

"Yay, games!" Dream squealed happily.

"I can't wait to kick all your butts!" Blitz yelled, leaping to her feet. "Let's go, come on! I'll make you all regret challenging the orange SOUL of BRAVERY!"

"No one 'challenged' you, Ink suggested playing a game," Leaf corrected.

"Blitz should have been called the SOUL of aggression, not BRAVERY," Willow muttered to Chara, Leaf, and Ink. All three laughed. Ink looked particularly amused by this.

Rule rolled his eyes, trying not to smirk. Though he had not heard Willow's jibe, he could guess what its contents had been. Dream pouted, looking miffed that no one had thought to include her in the joke.

Blitz glanced back at the others from where she had been explaining how she would beat them in each game Ink could possibly suggest, narrowing her eyes. "You know," she said loudly, "I would be glad to kick all your asses right now, game or no game."

"Watch your fucking language," Rule warned her, his eyes flashing. Given that his SOUL was the yellow of JUSTICE, it almost looked as though his eyes were sparking with lightning.

Blitz grumbled.

~(*)~

Shear snarled, glancing back at the last room and feeling infuriated. Why were all these fucking puzzles down here? It wasn't funny. No, in fact, it was aggravating. He hated it. He wanted to burn each and everyone of them down.

Unfortunately, he had lost his lighter long ago; probably somewhere with the thicker foliage he'd been forced to throw his body against in order to progress further. He'd certainly lost his balance and fallen plenty of times for him to suspect he'd lost it along the way here.

Probably more frustrating than the puzzles, though, were the little monsters that kept leaping into his path. He ignored them, however- he had no interest in them. He was here for Chara and Frisk, to get the fuck out of here, and to get the police to leave him and Tansy alone. After that, well…. He'd find a way to get rid of the little bitches. Maybe he'd find a way to push them down a rocky gorge...it wouldn't be too hard. Well, the pushing part. He was pretty sure that would be effective in smashing in their skulls so he wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. The hard part would be explaining their fall if their bodies were recovered. Hmm. He'd have to give this more thought, it seemed.

"AHA!"

Shear leapt back, startled out of his reverie by the _walking skeleton_ that had just jumped out from behind a rock to confront him.

"I don't believe it," the skeleton cackled. "I'll finally be able to do it!"

Shear froze, staring at the skeleton. He forced himself to keep quiet; maybe this skeleton could give him information he needed. Shear noted that the skeleton looked slightly mad; he was laughing and grinning, the look in his eyes- eye sockets? Eyelights? -was maddened.

The skeleton advanced slowly. "I'll have to be fast," he said, his breathing quickening as he looked around nervously. He looked into Shear's eyes. Something like regret or disappointment crossed his features. "It's too bad," he lamented. "I would so have loved to experiment on an adult human."

 _Experimented?_ Shear wondered. What could that mean?

"I wish I could, I wish I could," the skeleton moaned, sounding almost pained. " _Such a waste_ …."

Three huge, dog-like skulls appeared behind him as he raised his hand.

"But it must be done."

Shear prepared to leap out of the way, but then, he remembered something from long ago- from the legends and myths of the monsters he'd read with friends when he was young.

Worth a shot, right?

Smirking lopsidedly right back at the skeleton, Shear stood his ground. "Bring it on, monster."

Gaster's blasters shot their beams of light at Shear's body, burning it to ashes in seconds when he didn't try to leap away to protect his black SOUL of MALICE.

 **AN: Alright! First things first: Ink wasn't named after Ink Sans; my apologies if anyone else thought that or got mixed up? I really don't pay attention to/have much interest in Undertale AUs aside from Underfell/Flowerfell; I'm not even sure what the name of Ink Sans's AU is. I probably should have been more cautious with my names for the Human SOULs... But Ink seemed like a good name, and now I'm attached. Two! The SOULs explanation. I thought about explaining it in Chapter Three, but I changed my mind and saved the answer until now. The reason Chara sleeps so long is because the Human SOULs don't really have the same perception of time as the living. They are not only dead; they've been dead for a _long time_. Blitz is the youngest (in terms of how long she's been dead; Dream is, of course, the physical youngest), and even then she's still been dead for a very, very long time. Without giving too much away, Blitz has been dead long enough that her family is also dead; and they've been dead for long enough that any blood relatives she may have probably don't know anything about her, except for maybe a comment or two in passing about their grandmother's lost sister who disappeared and never came back. So, when they bring Chara to their "afterlife", they usually keep them there for a decent time period. Then, on top of that, Chara needs to recover from their visit, as their body doesn't really "rest" when they visit the SOULs. Three, I just wanted to say... A lot of people make a black SOUL HATRED...That seemed a bit cliched to me, and it isn't super fair to Shear either...not that he isn't hateful, but, if you haven't been able to tell, he does have people he loves, like Tansy. When I think of a SOUL of HATE, I picture someone who would willingly kill anyone else if it would save them because they don't really care about others. Shear, for all his faults, isn't like that. Even if he would willingly kill his kids, he would never put his Tansy in danger. MALICE fits him much better, in my opinion. Four! I mentioned _Megolovania_ and _Dark, Darker, Yet Darker_ playing during Sans's battle with Gaster. That's going to be important in the next chapter... and I'd like to apologize for it in advance because I'm not sure anyone is going to like what I have planned. Five, if anyone is interested in a sequel, please do let me know... Of course, I understand if you want to wait to pass judgement on that until this fic is over. Hopefully the next chapter doesn't ruin the whole story... But of course, you guys may not like my idea anyway; after all, Undertale OCs aren't always looked at as more than cringy Mary-Sues... Are the Human SOULs Mary-Sues and Gary-Stus? Fuck, I hope not.**

 **Finally, something amusing to get all this sadness out of the way. I share this story with one of my friends (the one who made the cover image, actually; please send her more love because I'm probably gonna sound mean and ungrateful teasing her), and while I was working on the scene just before Sans attacks Gaster with the intent to kill, we had a fun text conversation. She called Toriel "Totoro", and I'd just like you all to take a moment to imagine fucking Totoro appearing in the Waterfall laboratory, descending from the ceiling, and grabbing Sans in a bear hug to stop him from disintegrating Gaster.**

 **I hope to have the next Chapter out sooner than this one; this was harder because that Gaster fight was difficult; I was having a hard time making it decent. Luckily Chapter 7 is more fleshed out than Chapter 6 was before I started.**

 **Fuck this is long; I'm so sorry!  
**

 **Please Read and Review, and I'll try not to take so long with the next Chapter, but please be understanding if it's not out super soon. Thank you~!**


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